Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin
by May Wren
Summary: A seal had managed to defeat and imprison the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest demon to ever exist. It was just ink on paper-or a stomach, as the case may be-and it held so much power… 'Yeah,' Naruto decided 'I gotta get me some of that.'
1. Chapter 1

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin**

_**By May Wren**_

**Chapter One**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

_After the whole Mizuki incident…_

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Ne, Jiji, am I really the Kyuubi?" Naruto asked the Hokage as they sat in his office after the whole Mizuki disaster.

"No, Naruto," the Hokage said firmly. "I promise you, no."

"But how do you know for sure?" Naruto pressed. "All of the villagers scowl at me and call me monster and demon. So how do you know? Maybe Yondaime messed up and I really am the fox."

"Hmm," Sandaime mused. "Well, let me show you something." He reached into a drawer and pulled out two items.

"What is this?" he asked, holding one of them up.

"A kunai," Naruto answered.

"And this?"

"A scroll?" Naruto was confused.

"Right. Now watch." Naruto watched carefully as the Hokage wrote some characters onto the scroll then set the kunai on top of the characters and activated it with a flash of chakra. The kunai disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Do you know what I did?" the Hokage asked; Naruto shook his head. "I used fuuinjutsu to seal the kunai into the scroll. Now what is this?" He held up the finished product.

"Er, a scroll with a kunai sealed into it?"

"Correct, as far as it goes," the Hokage allowed. "But is this a scroll or a kunai?"

"A scroll."

"Exactly," the Hokage said, pleased. "Now do you understand?"

It took Naruto a few moments to grasp what Sandaime was getting at, and then the lights went on.

"Oooh," he said, understanding. "So I'm not the Kyuubi then." Sandaime shook his head in agreement.

"The Kyuubi is just… imprisoned inside me. And held there by a seal," he said. Sandaime nodded, and Naruto began to think. A seal had managed to defeat and imprison the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest demon to ever exist. It was just ink on paper (or a stomach, as the case may be), and it held so much power… _Yeah,_ Naruto decided, _I gotta get me some of that._

By the time the Sandaime turned back from putting the scroll away, Naruto was gone.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The Konoha Shinobi Library was open 24-hours, so even though it was late when he'd left the Hokage Tower, Naruto headed straight there. Luckily, it was also late enough that Naruto didn't run into anyone else there. Even as unfamiliar as he was with the library, it didn't take him long to find what he was looking for. After all, everyone else might have thought he was a dead-last moron, but the truth was that class was boring and Naruto had never cared about stupid things like grades. But _this_… This interested him. So he grabbed half-a-dozen dusty books that were on the meager old shelf dedicated to fuuinjutsu and took them back to his apartment and began to read.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

All of the new Academy graduates had been given a week off. This allowed them to get their Ninja Registrations from the Administration Office but, more importantly, it let the Academy Instructors make their team assignment recommendations to the Hokage and gave the Hokage the time to approve or change them as necessary and assign a Jounin sensei to each.

Naruto had spent the entire week trying to figure out fuuinjutsu. He hadn't seen any of his classmates and none of them had found out yet about his special graduation. So when Naruto showed up at the Academy the next week, there was a bit of surprise.

"Naruto, didn't you know this meeting was for graduates only?" Shikamaru asked, wondering what he was doing there. Naruto just pointed to his forehead protector in answer, too intent on his book to give a verbal reply. He slipped into an empty seat in the back without further questions, though that certainly didn't mean nobody else was curious. On the contrary, interest was piqued. Uzumaki Naruto had somehow passed, even though he'd failed the exam. And he was reading a book. In public. Voluntarily. A few of them checked to see if the sky was falling, but the entrance of Sakura and Ino drew their attention away from Naruto and to the spectacle that they created by arguing over who would sit by Sasuke.

For his part, Sasuke refused to even look at them, staring straight ahead and sneering in derision. Their contest over who would have the privilege of sitting next to Sasuke was so intense, they began to wrestle on the floor. Unfortunately for them, that was the exact moment Iruka walked in.

"Sakura! Ino! What are you doing," he demanded.

"Er… uh…" Sakura stammered, unsure of what to do.

"Just some last minute practicing, Sensei!" Ino said innocently, well used to trying to get out of trouble.

"Er, right Sensei!" Sakura agreed, quickly following her lead.

"Well, that's enough. Why don't you both sit up here in the front where I can make sure you don't have any more last minute practices," Iruka said. The girls slumped, but did as he said. Iruka gave a short speech to the class on how they were proud ninja of Konoha now, and needed to act in ways which would not bring dishonor to the Shinobi Corps. He looked particularly at Sakura and Ino as he said that. Then he announced the teams.

Naruto was peripherally aware of what Iruka was saying, enough to note that he'd been put with Sakura and Sasuke on Team 7, but he was busy with his book. So it didn't bother him when everyone left for lunch, or when everyone came back to meet their Jounin Sensei, or when he, Sakura, and Sasuke were left by their sensei to wait for more than two hours. When their sensei finally did come, Naruto looked at him and felt a brief flutter of recognition before it flitted away. The silver-haired Jounin gave them all a once over.

"My first impression of you is… you're not worth my time."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

After Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke all left, Naruto sat on the Academy's roof, wondering about Kakashi and what he'd said. They were to go on a survival test, but weren't to eat beforehand. And there was a 66% failure rate. Naruto, having flunked the Academy final exam three times, was well aware that there were a large number of students who passed the final exam but were still at the Academy for another year. He just hadn't realized that they'd been sent back by their Jounin sensei. And Naruto could not afford to be sent back to the Academy—he'd only passed by the skin of his teeth this time. If he were to be sent back, he'd be put with a new teacher. And without Iruka, he doubted he'd be given a chance.

So he needed to find more information about Kakashi's survival test. Luckily, he was already at the Academy. By himself. Grinning, he thought of all the pranks he could play, but then he remembered the hitai-ate on his forehead and quickly sobered. He was a ninja now, and that meant no more pranks. Not that he wouldn't still make good use of his pranking skills.

Naruto had been called into the Administrative Office of the Academy so often that he knew not only where it was, but that students' personnel records were kept in the filing cabinet on the wall to the left of the door and were organized by year and class. He also knew that the only thing between him and those records were a few flimsy locks. After all, in a school full of children, they couldn't have lethal traps set up. And, courtesy of his neighborhood, Naruto could pick a lock as quickly and easily as a professional thief.

It took him thirty seconds to get off the roof and through the office door, and only a handful of breaths to unlock the filing cabinet. He carefully began flipping through the records.

"First year… second… third… fourth… Bingo, review year."

He shuffled through the students until he found the three who had been assigned to Kakashi last year. One hated him with a passion, and the other two had dropped out. But one of those—Kensuke—he knew fairly well, being from the same neighborhood. Considering, Naruto thought he might be able to get him to help. He carefully put everything back precisely where he'd found it and locked the cabinet and office doors behind him. Then he went to find Kensuke.

He found him in the Southwest corner of Konoha's Akasen—the red light district—running a shell game. He waited, carefully hidden, until Kensuke's marks had given up, then showed himself.

"Hey, Naruto," Kensuke greeted him. "How's it hanging?"

"Meh, a little to the left these days," Naruto shrugged. "I got this a few days ago, you know, and was hoping you could shed some light on a few things for me." Naruto pointed to his hitai-ate. Kensuke raised an eyebrow behind his glasses and pushed his dark hair behind his ear.

"Is that so?" he said. "Well, play me. Win and I'll answer your questions. Lose and you owe me a favor. Fair?"

Naruto nodded and watched Kensuke flip up the shells to prove to him there was no trick and to show him where the queen of spades was. Then he started spinning them, trying to confuse Naruto into forgetting which shell held the queen.

"You've gotten better at this," Naruto remarked, without taking his eyes off the table.

"I've had a lot of practice since dropping out. Now tell me, where's my lady?" he asked as he stopped shuffling the shells. Naruto slapped his hands down on top of the two empty shells, more out of habit than to ensure that Kensuke didn't try to pull a fast one. Kensuke sighed and lifted the remaining shell to show that it did indeed hold the queen.

"Tch, I should've known better than to bet against you," Kensuke complained. "What do you want to know?"

"I've been assigned to Hatake Kakashi…"

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next morning, armed with Kensuke's information, Naruto ate a large breakfast. He debated showing up late, but decided he may as well be on time. Just in case Kakashi decided to show up. And he brought his latest fuuinjutsu book with him so he wouldn't waste the hours he expected to wait. He was the last to show up, being the only one not to have rushed to be there early.

"Hey, guys," he greeted. Sasuke grunted and Sakura waved. Then Naruto sat to wait; timing, after all, was everything. After two hours of silence, he heard Sakura's stomach rumble. Another ten minutes and Sasuke's replied. _There_, Naruto thought as he pulled out a big bag of dumplings and began to munch.

"Kakashi-sensei ordered us not to eat this morning," Sakura said accusingly.

"Nope," Naruto replied casually, listening to both of their stomachs complain loudly as he munched down another one. "He made a recommendation that we not eat before we came because he thought we would throw up. He also said we would be taking a survival test, and I remember the last survival test we took at the academy had us hunting and scavenging for food for three days. So you better believe I ate this morning. Are you saying you guys didn't?"

Sakura blinked at that—Naruto had managed to out-think her. Naruto, the dead last, had analyzed the situation better than she and Sasuke, the top two in the class. She wasn't sure what to do about that. Sasuke just scowled.

"Hunh," Naruto said, scratching his chin as though in contemplation. "Well, I'll share my dumplings with you. Whatever Kakashi has in mind, it'll be better if we're not starving when we go into it. So here." He held out the dumplings. When Sasuke reached out for one, he grinned. _Gotcha._

So Kakashi found them companionably snacking on dumplings when he showed up half-an-hour later. He was so startled by their blatant disregard for his warnings that, for a moment, he just stood there and stared.

"Ohayo," Naruto said with a smile. Sasuke gave him a raised eyebrow, and Sakura frowned at him, accusingly saying, "You're late."

"Maa, a black cat crossed my path and I had to go the other way around the village to get here," he explained. All three of his potential students glowered at him. Kakashi smiled. He thought he was beginning to like these twerps.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

They were all three hidden away. The companionship forged that morning just from sharing a snack already coming into play; without any conscious thought, they had all three fled into hiding from Kakashi together.

"So, only two of us can pass," Sakura said sadly. She'd gotten to like Naruto—just a little bit—that morning. When he wasn't running around like a loud fool or bugging her for dates, he really wasn't all that bad.

"No, this is an all or nothing test," Naruto said with a certainty that surprised the others. They looked at him in confusion.

"I am _not_ going back to the Academy for a Review year," Naruto said. "So I did some research on this Hatake guy. And I got some information about this bell test of his. It's all an f-ing mind trip."

"Hunh?"

"What do you mean," Sasuke demanded.

"Genin teams are passed and failed whole," Naruto explained. "That's why they're so careful picking them. So Kakashi only having two bells is a trick to drive us apart."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in anger, and Sakura let out a soft 'oh' of realization. It only took them a moment of thought to realize that Naruto was right. They'd seen dejected Genin return to the Academy for Review Year, too. And nobody had ever complained about their teammates going on without them. Though some had certainly complained that it was their teammates who were to blame for the Review Year.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, furious that his new supposed-teacher had tried to play him for a fool. "What else do you know."

"A lot," Naruto said with a wicked smile. "And I have a plan."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi was surprised when it was Sasuke instead of Naruto who was the first to engage him. From all of their files, he'd expected Naruto to be the most impulsive. As Kakashi was slowly herding Sasuke where he wanted him, he saw Sakura and Naruto hiding in the wings, waiting. He had to suppress a smile, wondering if this would be the first team to work together. Then Sasuke completely and suddenly changed tactics, switched a left jab to his torso to a grappling move.

"Now!" Sasuke yelled as Kakashi tried to dislodge him, only to find that he was unable to move. Naruto and Sakura had sprung from the bush at Sasuke's cue, and Naruto, he saw, was concentrating very hard on… something. He couldn't tell what, but he assumed it had something to do with his—and apparently Sasuke's, too—immobility.

"Go, Sakura," Naruto grunted, hands maintaining their seal and remaining as still as possible. Sakura darted towards them and grabbed the bells, then ran back to Naruto.

"Sasuke, ready," Naruto warned. And suddenly, Kakashi could move again, but Sasuke had dropped and rolled away towards his teammates. A slip of paper fluttered to the ground, dropped when Sasuke had moved. Kakashi bent to pick it up and saw a seal painted on it. This, he realized, was how they had been frozen. He wondered where they had gotten it, and how Naruto had learned to activate it. Then he looked at it closer, and wondered what exactly it was; he'd never seen a seal quite like that before.

"Well, Sakura," he said, tucking the paper into his pouch for further examination later. "Which of the boys are you giving your second bell to?"

"But… we worked together, Sensei," she said, obviously confused. "Don't we all pass?"

"I told you that whoever had a bell would eat lunch, and whoever didn't would get tied to a post and sent back to the Academy. So, since you have both, you get to pick which of the boys passes, and which gets sent back," Kakashi paused and rubbed his chin. "Unless, of course, you're going to keep both bells for yourself and send both of them back."

"That isn't fair," she protested. "It took all three of us working together to get the bells…"

"Life isn't fair," Kakashi said easily.

"Give it to Sasuke," Naruto said, watching Kakashi with flat eyes. "He's bluffing. He'll pass all of us or none of us"

"I assure you I do not bluff."

"Then give it to Naruto," Sasuke said. "It's about time the Uchiha seat on the Council worked for something other than collecting dust."

"It would be interesting to see their reaction to the number of genin Kakashi has failed," Naruto remarked. "I believe the total so far is 21? Twelve of whom passed their subsequent exam? And at least eight of them had relatives on the Council."

Kakashi wondered how Naruto knew that, and whether or not the boys were serious. Although he had to give them points; trying to threaten their Jounin sensei into passing them took some serious chutzpah.

"Meh," he said. "The worst that could happen to me is that I wouldn't be given a team. And since I'm trying to fail you anyway, that is my end goal. You, of course, would all still fail."

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura hemmed. Then she gave a bell to both the boys, much to their surprise. "I did the least. If anyone deserves to go back, it's me."

Kakashi smiled, pleased he finally had a team that he could pass. A team that _deserved_ to pass.

"Good choice, Sakura," he said. "But… you all pass."

He saw the other two kids give Naruto a grateful look and an appraising one.

"How did you _know_, Naruto?" Sakura asked. "He sure didn't sound like he was bluffing."

"Maa, maa," Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "You should never try to con a conman."

"You?" Sasuke asked skeptically. Naruto shrugged and smiled slyly.

"I may've run a game or two in my time," he said.

"Really?" Sakura asked. "What do you mean?"

Kakashi shook his head, pleased his team was already bonding.

"Hmm, well, a good con never reveals his tricks, you know," Naruto hedged with a grin.

"What! Naruto!" Sakura began to yell.

"Mou, forget about me?" Kakashi asked. "It was all of your choices to give up the bell for your teammates that made me pass you. There's something important I want you to remember. For shinobi, rules are important. They govern almost all of our existence. But to think, as you did this morning when you ignored my words telling you not to eat, is more important. And most important of all are these bonds we forge with our comrades. So one day, when you are presented with the choice between following the rules or saving your comrade, I want you to remember this moment, when you—three genin—worked together and broke the rules and sacrificed yourself to defeat a Jounin and help each other succeed."

They remained silent as they took in his words.

"Congratulations," Kakashi said. "Now, we're officially Team 7. We'll meet at 7:00 tomorrow morning at that bridge."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

All of the Jounin currently in Konoha were waiting at the Triple Kunai, a shinobi-only bar near the Hokage tower that Konoha's Jounin frequented. As Kakashi headed towards the back where they had formed a large table, he saw he was the last of those given a Genin team to arrive.

"Well?" Asuma asked immediately. Kakashi shrugged and everyone groaned.

"Not another team failed," Gai moaned. "My eternal rival, why must you douse the flames of…"

"They passed," he interrupted. Everyone froze.

"What was that?" Asuma asked.

"Can you repeat that?" Hayate said, coughing. "I'm sure I must not have heard that correctly. Did you actually say you passed a team?"

Anko tried to use the distraction to slither her way into Kakashi's lap, but he stood at the last second to get a round and she only managed to take his seat.

"We knew it had to happen sometime," Anko grouched. "Hokage-sama must've made him."

"Nope," Kakashi said cheerily as he returned. "They're just an exceptional bunch. Now which of you passed your brats?"

"Mine were practically born together," Asuma said. "They passed my test easily. Shikamaru can throw a plan together pretty easily, and they were able to catch me no problem. I let Ino and Chouji maneuver me into position for Shikamaru to catch me with his family's shadow jutsu."

"This was my first team," Kurenai spoke up. "But they worked together well. I had them try to find me, and it took them a few hours but they did it."

A few other Jounin mentioned failing their teams.

"Mine failed, too. Idiots, all of them. Now spill it, Hatake," Genma demanded. "I want to hear about this team that passed your infamous bell test."

"Well… when I got there, they were all sitting together eating dumplings like I hadn't ever told them not to eat," he said, still confused over this. The others began to chuckle.

"It seems as though you, my eternal rival, have been gifted with a team which will test your flames of youth," Gai said, slapping his back.

"More like he got stuck with brats as hard-headed and ornery as he is," Asuma chuckled. Kakashi quickly summed up the rest of the test, then got out the paper with the seal.

"Have any of you ever seen a seal like this?" he asked. Anko, Asuma, and Gai, all having some minor experience with seals, looked the paper over. Anko poked at it a few times, then tried to activate it and the paper dissolved.

"Hunh, well, shit," she said. Kakashi watched as the disintegrated paper blew away, and wondered what was to come for his team.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

When the Genin of Team 7 showed up the next morning, they were again forced into a long wait.

"I have a sneaking suspicion this is going to be a habit of his," Naruto said, much annoyed as he leaned against one of the bridge's railings.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, equally annoyed. Sakura sighed.

"Well, I brought dango to share," she said hesitantly. "If you'd like."

"Really?" Naruto asked, thrilled someone was going to share food with him.

"Hm!" Sakura agreed happily. "It was only fair, since you shared your dumplings with us yesterday."

"Thanks, Sakura!" he said, helping himself to a stick from the bag she set out. He conveniently forgot to mention that he'd only brought the dumplings as a reason to share his knowledge of the test. Sasuke jumped down from his perch on the railing and joined them.

"If this happens again tomorrow," Sasuke said. "We should start planning something to do. I refuse to waste hours every day waiting on that man, even if he is our sensei."

So when Kakashi finally did show up, he was again met with three Genin, munching on snacks and, it appeared, plotting. He wondered who had caught their ire.

"Ohayo, mina-san," he greeted.

"You're late," Sakura censured him.

"Ah… well…"

"Is this something we can expect from you often?" Sasuke interrupted his excuse.

"Because we have other things we can be doing besides waiting for you, you know," Naruto finished. Kakashi blinked in surprise, taking in the three of them, arms all crossed over their chests and glaring at him. Even the Hokage didn't confront him on his lateness (at least, not directly), and these Genin thought to do so on their second day as his students? Still, he found them kind of cute, and was glad his mask hid his grin.

"Maa, maa, let's do some training, ne?" he distracted them.

He set them all to doing katas for the basic taijutsu style taught at the academy, and frowned as he watched Naruto.

"Hold," he ordered, and Naruto froze, that having been drilled into all of them at the Academy. Kakashi poked him, and Naruto fell over. "Your left foot should be another step forward and turned out more in that stance. Again."

To his credit, Naruto got right back up.

"Shoulders back for this one."

He made small but important adjustments to Naruto's stances throughout.

"Didn't you listen to your teachers at all?" Kakashi finally asked.

"This is exactly how Mizuki …" Naruto's mouth snapped shut at that.

"I remember that," Sakura piped up. "Mizuki-sensei spent a whole week with you working on your taijutsu."

"Mizuki hated me," Naruto said, voice so nonchalant about it even Sasuke turned to look. "I'm not surprised he taught me wrong."

Kakashi filed that away for further analysis later, and had Naruto run through the kata a few more times before he was satisfied. Then they moved on to the next. It took the whole morning, but Kakashi slowly adjusted Naruto's stances and movements for all of the basic Academy katas. Then he had them break for lunch.

Sakura almost asked Sasuke to lunch on a date, but then she hesitated. He'd actually spoken to her the past two days, and she hadn't even had to beg him to do it. And Naruto… he seemed to be able to instigate it. And he wasn't as bad as she'd thought he was. So maybe, she decided, it would be best to focus on being a team just now. She nodded. Love could always come later, after all.

"Hey, do you two want to grab lunch?" she asked.

"Yeah!" Naruto happily agreed. He saw Sasuke hesitating. "And… we can finish up from this morning, you know." Sasuke perked up at this sweetening of the pot and nodded.

"Come on," Naruto said. "I know the best ramen stand in Konoha!"

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

When Kakashi showed up after their lunch break, it was closer to 3:00 than the 1:00 he'd told them. And he was very pleased to see Sasuke and Sakura helping Naruto with his forms. Sasuke by pushing him off balance when his stance was flawed, and Sakura by making adjustments to his stance, helping the blond find his balance in the stances.

He let them work for another few minutes before announcing his presence.

"Good job, mina-san," he said.

"You're late," all three of them grouched, ignoring him and continuing to work.

"Hmm… so cold to your sensei? Well, I guess none of you want a mission then?" he teased, pulling out his book. All three of them were in front of him, peering at him eagerly before he could even open _Icha Icha_.

"Let's go," Naruto said. Kakashi suppressed a grin. _Ah_, he thought with satisfaction. _Age and cunning will triumph over youth and enthusiasm every time._

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

And so it went for the next few weeks. In the mornings, Kakashi would work with them on improving some aspect of their shinobi training, and in the afternoons, they would get a mission. And when Kakashi was late (which was always) they would help each other train themselves. Mornings were dedicated to Naruto, and they would go over the basics, reviewing Academy taijutsu and skills that he'd either missed completely or been taught wrong. Sakura and Sasuke were curious about why Naruto's education had been so sabotaged, but whenever they brought it up Naruto would just wave them off with a smile and a laugh.

The time spent waiting for Kakashi after lunch, Naruto returned the favor. He would barrage Sasuke with shadow clones, helping him try to activate his Sharingan. And he would let Sakura use them for targets, helping her learn to hit harder and gain more stamina, because her current hits wouldn't even dispel his clones, much less hurt a real ninja.

Until one day, Sasuke was tired and aggravated by his lack of progress.

"None of this shit is working," Sasuke snarled as he gave a vicious kick that dispelled the last of Naruto's clones. "Why the hell can't I get my eyes to activate? _He_ was able to when he was years younger than me. What am I doing wrong?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head in dismay. This emotional shit wasn't something he was any good at dealing with.

"Er, maybe you just need more clones?" Naruto suggested.

"That won't do anything," Sasuke said, disheartened. "I know that one solid strike and they're gone, so I never even feel concerned, no matter how many you summon."

"So… you need stronger clones? More dangerous ones?" Naruto asked, considering the possibility. "Maybe clones that last a while past a strike?"

"Is that even possible?" Sakura asked curiously. "Do you know how to modify a jutsu like that? Iruka-sensei said it was dangerous."

"Well, I guess we'll find out," Naruto said, biting his bottom lip. The next hour was spent with Naruto making hundreds of shadow clones in dozens of different ways—more chakra, less chakra, unbalanced chakra skewed to spiritual or physical energy, purely using physical or spiritual energy—everything and anything he could think of. On a whim, Naruto tried molding a clone out of dirt instead of pure chakra, but found them not only more difficult to make but weaker and without the ability to use chakra at all. Still, he ran through a few other mediums—water, air, leaves, smoke, fire—to see whether any of those were any better. They weren't.

"Let's take a break," Sakura suggested, out of breath from helping dispel the clones to test whether they were any stronger. Sasuke frowned but sat with them, opening the container of onigiri he'd brought. Naruto grinned greedily as he took one and bit into viciously.

He loved onigiri, and only ever got them when Sasuke brought it for seconds, as they'd taken to calling their extra breakfasts. The little treat hidden inside the ball of rice was always so good.

He paged through his latest book on seals, more out of habit than anything else, as he was too caught up in trying to figure out how to make his clones stronger to help Sasuke to really pay too much attention to the book. A piece of pickled plum fell out when he took a bite of the onigiri, falling on the book.

"Aw, shit," Naruto grumbled, wiping it up. Then his eyes stuck on the page where the stain was—right on an entry on durability seals. His mind began to race, whirling to a thousand places all at once.

He looked between the onigiri and the page and back again. _This_, he thought, _could work. A seal inside a kage bunshin. Just like an onigiri._ He quickly read through the section on durability seals, then scribbled one on a spare slip of paper. Now he had Sasuke and Sakura's attention—the last time they'd seen him make a seal, they'd managed to take down an elite Jounin, after all. The trick, he thought, would be activating the seal at the same time he created the shadow clone. He wasn't worried about sticking the seal inside—he'd already made clones out of leaves, so he knew he had that part down.

The first try didn't work. The seal was well inside the clone, but not active. Ditto tries 2-12. Try 13 got an active seal, but once activated, he couldn't integrate it with the shadow clone. He frowned in frustration and wrote out another seal, changing the activation component around. Again and again and again. Then the limiters, then the seal itself. He scowled as none of it worked, then scowled more when he realized Kakashi was coming soon, which meant he would have to put his experiments on hold for a while. The three of them had an unspoken agreement to keep their training to themselves—after all, if Kakashi wasn't going to bother to care enough to show up on time, why should they bother to let him know what went on while he wasn't there. But his brow was furrowed in thought all throughout the morning as the idea continued to percolate.

"Mou, am I really so boring, Naruto?" Kakashi asked drolly, noticing his lack of attention during their training.

"Yes." "Yes." "Yes."

Came three answers all at once. Kakashi raised his eyebrow.

"Oh, really?" he asked. "Well, maybe you'd find fifty laps around the lake more amusing."

"What?" Naruto yelled, finally coming out of his fog.

"You shouldn't blame us for answering your question!" Sakura protested.

Kakashi just motioned them on, and the three of them slumped over and headed off.

"Sadist," Sasuke muttered.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Three days later, Naruto still had made no progress. But he'd learned a lot about seals from his failures. Sasuke was ready to throw in the towel. When the clones started to explode, Sakura heartily agreed.

"Naruto, give it up," Sasuke told him with a sigh.

"This should work, though," Naruto protested. "I don't understand what's going on with this."

"Even if you do get it, there's no guarantee it'll work though, right?" Sakura asked. "I mean, that it'll help Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned away to glare at a tree.

"He said he needed more dangerous opponents. If he can't dispel them so easily, the clones will be more dangerous opponents," Naruto said. "It'll work. Or, at least it won't hurt. I just need to figure out how to get it to all stay together."

Sasuke and Sakura tried to convince him, then gave up and left him to it. Naruto stayed at the training ground all night, determined to find a way to help Sasuke. He would show everyone he wasn't some dead last loser, that he could help them as much as they helped him. Then his latest attempt exploded even more violently than normal, cutting his hand where he held it up to shield his face.

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled, slamming his hand to the ground where he'd fallen. A seal stuck to his hand as the blood made it sticky. He glared at it.

"Fine," he said. "But you're the last one."

He tossed it forward and formed the chakra to create a clone, reaching at the same time with his chakra to activate the seal.

"Yo," the clone said as the smoke disappeared.

"No… explosion…" Naruto stared, shocked. "Alright, you know the drill."

The clone nodded, and Naruto threw a hard punch to its face and waited for it to disappear. And waited.

"Holy shit, it worked!" he yelled. "Let's try another!"

And he slugged the clone again, and again, and again before it finally disappeared. Now completely revved up, Naruto went to work.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

His team found him passed out at the training ground the next morning, and sighed in exasperation.

"What an idiot," Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I think it's kind of sweet, Sasuke-kun," Sakura ventured an opinion. "I mean, he's doing it to help you, after all."

"Tch." Sasuke didn't have any other response. Mostly because he was kind of confused by the fact that Naruto was working so hard to help him. Nobody had ever done that before, not his father, or his brother, or any of the other sycophants who'd come out of the woodwork after his clan's murder, no matter how much they'd protested they were trying to help him.

"Ergh," Naruto moaned, rolling over and rubbing his face. "Wa time'sit?"

"Time to get your lazy ass up, dobe," Sasuke said, prodding his shoulder with a toe.

"Sasuke!" Naruto jumped up, realizing they were here. "Sakura, I did it!"

They both blinked in surprise.

"No, really," Naruto said. "Watch." He pulled out one of the seals he'd already made.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu," Naruto called, activating the seal at the same time. The clone waved.

"Go on," Naruto urged. "Hit it."

Sasuke shrugged and gave it a casual kick. Their eyes widened in surprise when it didn't disappear.

"Geeze, put a little more effort into it that that." The clone rolled his eyes.

"Really," Naruto agreed. "I want to put him through his paces."

Sasuke turned to him.

"Can you make more?"

Naruto grinned and threw out a few dozen seals, and soon the clearing was filled with kage bunshin.

When Kakashi arrived a few hours later, he raised his eyebrow at finding all three of his students wiped out and panting on the grass.

"Ohayo, mina-san," he said cheerfully; they only groaned. "What, are my cute little students not happy to see me? Well, maybe a few hundred laps around the lake will change your mind."

The string of words that came out of Naruto's mouth was almost enough to make Kakashi blush. Sasuke and Sakura turned tomato red.

"Mou, I'm not sure that's anatomically possible," Kakashi said consideringly. Naruto's response to that _did_ make Kakashi blush.

"Where in the world did you learn such things?" Kakashi asked, jaw slack.

"Tch, in a whore house, where else?" Naruto said. They all rolled their eyes, sure he was joking.

"Hmm, well, I guess I'll just have to beat it out of you, then," Kakashi said. "We can't have a proud shinobi of the leaf sprouting such obscenities, can we?"

His students looked at him incredulously.

"Sensei… you read porn," Sakura said. "In public. While teaching us."

"Yes, well, when you get to be my age, things are a little different. Now get ready," Kakashi ordered, watching as Naruto tensed and readied himself to run or dodge. "Go."

Naruto disappeared, but Kakashi was already moving.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The three genin groaned as they collapsed together in a heap.

"Sensei, that was brutal," Naruto complained of the 'training.' The other two could only grunt in agreement.

"Suck it up," Kakashi said with no sympathy, looking as cool and unruffled as ever. They glared at him as he sat there, calmly reading his book without the decency to be even sweating.

"Water," Sakura begged, shaking her empty canteen.

"Nn," Naruto flexed a bit of chakra and a clone popped into existence, gathering their canteens and heading towards the stream to fill them.

"That," Sakura said in appreciation. "Is such a useful jutsu."

"I can teach you if you want," Naruto offered. Sakura and Sasuke both perked up at that.

"Absolutely not," Kakashi said sternly, crisply shutting his book. All three genin looked at him in surprise.

"But Sensei…"

"No," Kakashi repeated. "The fact of the matter is, Kage Bunshin is a kinjutsu, one that Naruto shouldn't even know, much less be teaching to other genin. But that aside, how the jutsu works is to divide your chakra evenly among the clones you make. That Naruto is able to use it so easily and so casually is… a special case. Even I don't use it so carelessly—even _the_ _Hokage_ doesn't. If he were to teach you two, and you were to attempt it… I think the chakra drain would probably kill you at this point."

Kakashi met each of his genin in the eye, wanting to make sure he'd driven his point home.

"I want your word that you won't attempt this," Kakashi said. They all nodded their agreement.

"But, Sensei, why's Naruto such a special case?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, why can he do it so easily if even the Hokage can't?" Sasuke asked. Naruto was looking down and away, not wanting to be a part of where this conversation was going.

"Hmm, well," Kakashi said rubbing his cloth-covered chin and contemplating what to tell them. "I guess it's similar to you being able to develop the Sharingan, Sasuke." Naruto's eyes went wide at what he was implying.

"Bloodline," Sasuke murmured in understanding. Sakura's mouth made a little 'o' as she nodded quickly, it all making sense to her now.

"No wonder Naruto knows that jutsu then!" she said. "That explains why he's so good at clones."

As Kakashi nodded, Naruto looked away, guilt spearing up at the thought of deceiving his friends. But there was nothing for it. The Kyuubi was an S-class secret of the village, and the Hokage had emphasized how important it was to keep silent. He promised himself he would make it up to them.

When Naruto went home that night, he was still thinking about it. And about how he couldn't teach them Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. And about how much more they'd be able to train if only they _could_ use kage bunshins. He wondered if there was a way he could do the jutsu for them, which would keep his promise not to teach his teammates but still give them all the benefits of it.

And he decided that, if there wasn't a way, he'd make one.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next two weeks saw Naruto rarely without his nose buried in either a book on seals or jutsu theory. And even when he was doing something else, he always had a clone picking up where he'd left off. Sasuke wasn't sure what to think about his sudden studiousness. Of course, Sasuke wasn't sure what to think about Naruto at all most of the time, so he figured this probably wasn't any different.

So he just watched as Naruto worked frantically on perfecting his Onigiri Bunshins, as he'd taken to calling them for reasons Sasuke had yet to understand, until one morning Naruto announced they were done.

"What do you mean you're done?" Sakura asked. "It can take years to completely finish and understand the alteration of a jutsu."

"Meh?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and attempted to look stupid. Sasuke was sure it wasn't difficult for the blonde, but he hated it when Naruto pretended to be dumber than he was, and when it came to seals, Sasuke freely admitted Naruto was something of a genius.

"Cut it out," Sasuke muttered angrily. Naruto cocked his head to the side curiously at Sasuke's remark, then shrugged and dropped the idiot act.

"Well, I've explored all the possible alterations to the durability seal," Naruto said, launching into his techno-babble. Sasuke attempted to tune him out as Naruto started discussing limiters and activation components and other things that gave Sasuke a headache.

"So now, it should take a killing stroke to pop the clones," Naruto finished. Sasuke saw Sakura drooling; he figured she had tried to follow him instead of zoning out and just pretending to.

"…Right," she finally agreed.

"Good!" Naruto said happily. "So, ready?" Sasuke nodded and Naruto threw a dozen seal-wrapped kunai towards him, activating the jutsu.

He immediately noticed how much harder they were to dispel. No matter how hard he hit or how well he connected, they wouldn't pop. Sasuke grinned and began fighting in earnest. He remembered what Naruto had said about a killing strike, and then it happened. The kunai in Sasuke's hand plunged into one of the clone's heart.

Sasuke froze as the clone reached its hands up to its chest. He yanked the kunai out and stared in horror as blood poured out of the clone's chest. _I've killed Naruto_, he thought in shock. _I've killed Naruto._ He didn't realize he was also muttering it aloud. Then the clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving behind only the kunai Naruto had used to make it.

Sasuke dropped to his knees, kunai falling to the ground, grief and pain and terror all wrapping around in his mind as the sight of his hand going into Naruto's chest overlapped with memories of Itachi's systematic slaughter of the clan. Then all he knew was blinding agony, and he began screaming, hands pressed to his eyes. He didn't know how long he stayed like that, and had no idea when Naruto and Sakura had started to hold him, but suddenly he wanted nothing more than to flee. After a brief struggle he managed to break away from them long enough to rush a few feet, where he was stopped as he became violently ill. Still, Naruto and Sakura went to him, Sakura holding his hair as Naruto steadied him to make sure he wouldn't fall.

"Leave… alone…" Sasuke tried to mutter as he attempted to collect himself, embarrassment and grief and stress and pain too much for him to deal with when he knew they were still watching.

"Not on your life, Sasuke," Naruto responded quietly. Sakura didn't reply at all, except to pour some water from her canteen on a spare kerchief she had in her pouch and then press it to Sasuke's forehead.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto wasn't sure what to think about Sasuke. He wasn't screaming and vomiting anymore, but he was quiet—absolutely silent instead of his normal introverted bastard silence—and he held himself with a stiffness that bordered on brittle. And Naruto didn't want him to break again.

"Mou, so, I think I should henge the clones we use for spars from now on, ne?" Naruto suggested.

Then Kakashi showed up and Naruto refrained from swearing. As always, their sensei had a shitty sense of timing.

"Ohayo, mina-san!" Kakashi said cheerily, then looked at his team and cocked his head to the side when he saw how subdued they all were. He briefly debated asking why, then decided not to get in the middle of any lovers' spat they might be having and stay out of it.

"So you may be wondering why I have three rabbits with me today," Kakashi said, moving on. "I've decided it's time for you to begin to learn how to deal with some of the more brutal aspects of ninja life. Your first task this morning is to kill a rabbit."

Naruto and Sakura stared at him, mouths agape. Naruto had to refrain from swearing aloud that Kakashi would chose _this_ morning of all mornings for such a thing. Kakashi, he decided, had _really_ shitty timing.

"Here you go," Kakashi said, tossing each of them a rabbit and a kunai. "I know this may be difficult, but…"

He trailed off as he saw Naruto and Sakura weren't paying any attention to him at all, their entire focus on Sasuke. Then Sasuke drove the kunai deeply into his rabbit's skull, killing it instantly. The impaled rabbit was dropped to the ground—not thrown, just released as though he couldn't be bothered to hold it anymore—then Sasuke turned and walked away, head and shoulders hunched. Naruto and Sakura turned to follow him, but Kakashi had a grip on both of their necks.

"Let him deal with this his way," Kakashi said. "You'll have to learn how to deal with it in your own ways as well."

"Fuck that, I…"

"I'm not letting you leave until you complete your assignment," Kakashi said sternly. Sakura and Naruto exchanged glances, then killed their rabbits in two clean strikes before tossing them at Kakashi's feet.

"We're taking the rest of the day off," Naruto said, voice even and steady and serious in a way that Kakashi had never heard from him before. "We'll see you tomorrow morning."

Then Kakashi watched confused as Sakura and Naruto went after Sasuke. He considered trying to find out what had his team in such a strange mood, but decided to let them work it out amongst themselves. The hands off approach was probably for the best. Weeks later he would come to regret that decision.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It hadn't taken long for Naruto and Sakura to catch up with Sasuke—he wasn't running or trying to conceal himself or even really paying much attention to anything other than putting one foot in front of the other. So it didn't take much for Naruto to subtly guide their steps away from the village proper and up the path that led to the top of the Hokage Monument.

He gently pushed Sasuke to sit, and he complied without any resistance. Naruto worried that maybe Sasuke wasn't even there at all. After just sitting there next to him for a while, Sasuke suddenly slammed his fists into the rock beside his legs.

"Why the fuck am I so pathetic!" he demanded, yelling out his anger. "I kill a clone—which isn't even really alive—and I flip out. Hell, I practically have a nervous breakdown. If I can't even handle that, how can I ever kill that man? How will I ever avenge my clan and give them peace? How?"

"I don't have the answers, Sasuke," Sakura offered tentatively. "But I know that you are not pathetic, not in any way at all. And I know that if this is something you set your mind on, even if you don't know how you'll do it now, someday you'll be able to achieve your goal."

"And however you do it, you know we'll be with you," Naruto said. "Whatever you do, we'll be there."

"You can't!" Sasuke yelled. "He killed my clan! He killed everyone, and I'm all that's left, and I have to kill _him_."

"Can you tell us who?" Sakura asked gently.

"_Him_," Sasuke said. "That man. My brother." And he told them the story he'd never before spoken. When he was done, the three of them sat in silence, digesting it all.

"It doesn't matter," Naruto finally said, voice soft but strong and steady, "if Itachi is as strong as the Hokage. I'll still be with you."

"You don't understand," Sasuke shot back bitterly. "I have to do it. _Me._ He's my… he's my brother, and it's my clan."

"Well, yes. But does that mean that you have to do it alone?" Naruto asked, contemplating the whole thing and cursing himself that he wasn't better at dealing with such delicate situations. "I guess the real question is: is it more important for you to get your vengeance for your family quickly or by yourself?"

Sasuke blinked, startled into thinking instead of reacting.

"Because remember how the three of us beat Kakashi-sensei straight out of the Academy?" Naruto continued, not waiting for Sasuke to respond. "And Kakashi-sensei is one of the elite of the elite. Working together, the three of us can probably take him within a year, maybe two. If you want to do it on your own, sure you'll be able to do it eventually, but that eventually could be a long ways off."

Sasuke was too taken aback by what Naruto had said and the ideas it put into his mind and the feelings it made swirl around inside him to respond. The casual assuredness in his voice when he'd mentioned Sasuke being able to do it… Sasuke wasn't sure he'd ever had anyone believe in him like that. The belief staggered him into silence, and so Naruto just shrugged and kept going.

"Either way, Sasuke, you have to know we'll do everything we can to help you be ready for him," Naruto said. "If that's going with you when you go after the bastard or if it's kicking your ass until you're ready, we're a team. We'll be here."

"We'll be here," Sakura echoed. The offer of absolute, unconditional support pushed Sasuke over the edge he'd been teetering on. It was all too much in too short a time, and he let himself go. A voice in his head berated him for showing such weakness in front of outsiders, but Sasuke was able to quiet it. His clan was gone after all, but Naruto and Sakura were here, and warm, and even as he was quietly weeping, Naruto threw his arms around him and pulled until Sasuke's back was resting against him, and Sakura settled in his lap, wrapping her arms around both of them as she buried her head in Sasuke's shoulder and cried along with him. And he didn't feel weak, and he didn't feel ashamed.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

After a few hours, they all felt a bit more steady and settled. When Naruto's stomach growled, Sasuke chuckled and Sakura scolded him, and by mutual agreement, they all got up. Sakura gave Naruto the scroll he'd sealed their lunch in that morning, and he quickly had everything out and ready to eat.

"So," Naruto said as they ate, and Sasuke tensed, wondering if he was going to tease him for his display, or if he were going to demand more information about Itachi. "You know how Kakashi-sensei made us promise I wouldn't teach you how to do Kage Bunshin?"

Sasuke blinked in surprise; that hadn't been at all what he'd expected.

"I don't think it's a good idea for us to learn it," Sakura said. "Kaka-sensei said it could kill us, because we don't have that bloodline, Naruto."

"I wasn't going to teach you," Naruto said. "I gave my word, and I don't intend to break it. But I _have_ been working out a way where you can get the benefits of using kage bunshins without having to actually learn or perform the jutsu. Let me show you."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Naruto's sly grin. Whenever he'd seen it on the blonde's face, something big had happened. Naruto reached into his pouch and pulled out two strips of paper with the crazy seal script that only Naruto was able to understand.

"I created a two-part seal," Naruto explained. "Which is why there are two ofuda." Sasuke looked from one to the other, but didn't see much difference between them. From the way he saw her squinting her eyes at them, he guessed Sakura couldn't see a difference either.

"Basically, what happens is I do the jutsu, but when I mold the chakra, it's filtered through this seal," he held the one in his left hand up. "Which is placed on one of the target's chakra points. The seal then filters the chakra through the target's chakra system before sending it back to the second seal, which activates and executes the jutsu."

"That sounds really dangerous," Sakura said biting her lip. "Filtering it through another person's chakra system? Couldn't that fry the person's chakra? Have you done any test runs of it?"

Naruto deflated a bit.

"I wanted you guys to be the first to see it," Naruto said. "So I've only done trials with some onigiri bunshin. But they might react differently because, you know, not really alive, plus it's all still my chakra."

"I'll test it," Sasuke volunteered immediately. It was the least he could give back.

"But it could be dangerous," Sakura protested. He silenced her with a look.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked him. "Sakura's right. If I screwed up… well, it could be… bad."

"Did you screw up?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't think so," Naruto hedged.

"Yes or no," Sasuke insisted. Naruto took a deep breath, then looked over the seals in his hands again.

"No," he said. "No, I didn't."

"Then let's do this."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo


	2. Chapter 2

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin **

**Chapter Two**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi eyed his students warily as they pulled weeds from a pumpkin patch—their latest D-ranked mission. They had been acting oddly over the past few weeks during their missions. In morning training, they were fine, normal. In the afternoon, though, they were oddly more subdued and quiet. At first, he'd put it off as their just being tired from the morning workouts. Then he'd attributed it to mutual dislike of the D-ranked missions.

But Asuma had raised his suspicions when he'd mentioned running into his team training themselves the previous afternoon. When Kakashi had been watching them pick up trash from a local park. So he eyed them closely, looking for any sign they weren't who they said they were.

Even then he couldn't find anything—Sasuke was still the mostly anti-social, emotionally stunted brat; Sakura still berated Naruto and made eyes at Sasuke; and Naruto still smiled and laughed like an idiot. Although, come to think of it, Kakashi realized Sakura hadn't been walloping Naruto like she used to. His eye widened as the implications of that struck him.

_Could they be Kage Bunshins?_ he wondered. He'd thought he'd made his point clear enough to all three about Naruto not teaching the other two that jutsu, but… how else could they be in two places at once? No, he knew that if Sakura especially tried to make a shadow clone, she would be in the intensive care unit of Konoha General Hospital. But that didn't mean Naruto couldn't be making shadow clones that could then use Henge to make themselves look like his teammates.

He considered this as he watched his students move down the row of orange, and had the stray thought that there actually _was_ a place in Konoha where Naruto's outfit could be considered camouflage.

Sakura stood then and tripped over a vine, sending her wheeling into Sasuke, who tried unsuccessfully to steady them both. Instead, they wound up crashing to the ground and smashing a pumpkin.

"Unh," Sasuke groaned, rubbing his back and sloughing pumpkin innards off his shirt.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura apologized. Naruto shook his head and helped them both up, trying unsuccessfully to hide his amused smile.

_That rules out Sasuke and Sakura as clones_, Kakashi thought. But Naruto could still be a clone. Naruto, after all, did provide the significant push in the team dynamic. So if _he_ were a clone, and he didn't want to get whacked for stupidity… Kakashi thought it made a lot of sense for him to be quieter, which would lead to Sakura and Sasuke being quieter as well. He decided to test out his conclusion and winged a rock at Naruto.

Then he blinked in surprise when Naruto whirled around to block it with a kunai, Sakura and Sasuke immediately sliding into defensive positions beside him.

"Oi, what the hell was that for?" Naruto demanded, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"Maa, maa, just wanted to see if you were on your toes!" Kakashi said with a smile. Then he suddenly appeared in front of the blonde to deliver a sucker punch.

"Oof," Naruto doubled over, even as he was rolling back and throwing a brace of shuriken to give himself space to maneuver, Sasuke and Sakura following suit.

"What the fuck!" Naruto yelled. "That wasn't keeping me on my toes."

"Nope," Kakashi greed with a grin, casually catching and returning the shuriken. "That was me seeing if you're a kage bunshin." Naruto blinked. Then gave him a queer look.

"Ever think of asking?"

"Er, no?" Kakashi scratched his head.

"Eh, what an idiot," Sasuke muttered. Kakashi smiled.

"What was that?" he asked. "You want extra laps tomorrow? Mou, I guess I can let you do that."

All three of his genin glared.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi wasn't sure what to think about his genin. All in all, they really weren't too bad. They didn't whine at him overly much, and were pretty self-contained. They were smart enough to catch on to whatever he tried to teach quickly enough to keep from being annoying about it. They were also smart asses from time to time, but Kakashi considered that a plus, as it kept him entertained. But he felt like he was missing something. Something big.

He was still considering it as he headed to the bar to meet up with some of the other Jounin assigned to Konoha for the duration.

"Yo," he greeted, grabbing a chair at the table.

"My rival! I must say how unyouthful it is for you to leave your genin to train themselves for hours on end," Gai admonished.

"Ma, ma," Kakashi waved away the complaint as he poured himself a drink. "It's good for them. A few hours of teaching themselves and each other helps make them self-reliant. They know how to get things done without anyone spoon-feeding it to them."

"Self-reliant?" Asuma chuckled. "I'll say. I'd love my genin to have even a hint of their… er, self-reliance. And motivation. To stay and train for five or six hours a day by themselves… that's impressive for genin."

Kakashi eyed him curiously, careful not to give anything away. Because he'd never left his team for five or six hours to train themselves.

"Mou, they like to surprise me from time to time. When was it you saw them?"

"Er, today?" Asuma said, and Kakashi hid his surprise at the response. "You mean to tell me you do this regularly?"

"Kakashi, you're supposed to be teaching these kids," Kurenai said. "How are they supposed to learn if you leave them to themselves?"

"Oh, believe me, Kurenai," Kakashi said smiling. "My kids learn just fine. In fact, sometimes, they're too smart for their own good."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

He got there early the next morning—earlier even than any of his genin. Because if this were happening as frequently as the other Jounin seemed to think, then Kurenai and Gai were right and he was being too lax. Though he still resented their implications that he was nothing more than a burn out.

He hadn't been there long before his genin got there, which surprised him as he was there an hour earlier than the meeting time he always set—and to which he was reliably one and a half to two hours late. As he settled in to watch, his eyes went wide at what he saw.

After a brief greeting, Naruto threw what must have been a few dozen kunai at Sasuke and Sakura, each of which turned into a Naruto, and then into a faceless, masked shinobi. Sasuke began sparring with the majority of them while Sakura took on a handful. Then Naruto jumped in, on the side of the faceless shinobi and the free-for-all really took off. Were they kage bunshin, Kakashi wondered, and was thatSharingan he saw flashing in Sasuke's eyes?

Kakashi began to feel a bit ill. And as he continued to watch, he didn't feel any better.

They were definitely solid clones, and no matter how Sasuke hit them, they didn't disappear. Kakashi's jaw went slack—Konoha shinobi had been trying to figure out how to do that for years to no avail, and it seemed his students had managed to pull it off under his nose.

He watched for almost two hours before they slowed, and he wondered why. Sasuke pulled a container from his bag and grinned as Naruto pounced on it.

"Onigiri!" Naruto cried happily. "Yes! I love it when it's your turn to bring seconds!"

They sat and ate, quietly resting and replenishing themselves as Kakashi realized they waited for him. He almost showed himself then, but Naruto fingered two seal strips and he held himself back.

"You guys ready?" Naruto asked, and they nodded.

Sakura turned her back to him and Sasuke stepped up to let her brace against him. Naruto unzipped her dress and—before Kakashi's eyes could bug out too far—stuck one of the seal strips on the small of her back, slicing his thumb and smearing it over both the seal strip on Sakura and the one still in his hand.

Then he created a Kage Bunshin—around the seal strip in his hand—and, instead of Naruto appearing, Sakura did. Before Kakashi had recovered, Naruto was zipping Sakura's dress back up and Sakura was shaking her head.

"That always feels so strange," she said. Then it was Sasuke's turn. He hiked his shirt up to give Naruto access, and Naruto placed a seal on him as well, creating a Sasuke Kage Bunshin. Then he threw a kunai, and a Naruto clone appeared.

Kakashi was impressed—his kids had managed amazing feats in the few weeks they'd been genin. Kakashi was disappointed—he couldn't really say he'd been any part of their success; if anything, it appeared his team had been working around him instead of with him and he'd been lax enough to allow it to happen. Kakashi was upset—his team had found a way to pawn him and the crappy D-rank missions off on clones and he hadn't noticed for what could have been weeks, for all he knew. He wondered if they were using the clones for his training sessions, too. From what he'd seen of them that morning, the clones would be able to stand up to even harsh training without any problem.

"Ready?" the Naruto clone asked. The Sasuke and Sakura clones nodded and headed out. Which at least answered one question—the brats stuck around for training. But Naruto wasn't the only one who knew Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, so Kakashi sent one of his own after the clones to see what they were up to. A few minutes later, Kakashi jumped down from the tree where he'd been watching.

"Ohayo, Sensei," Naruto greeted. Sakura smiled cheerily and Sasuke… well, he didn't frown, which was about as positive a greeting as he gave. Kakashi did not share their good cheer; training was brutal that morning.

He let them break for lunch, but only because he wanted to watch them while they thought he was gone. The three genin practically collapsed into each other.

"What did we do?" Sakura complained. "It was like he was angry with us. Really, really angry. But I can't figure out what we did wrong."

"Maa, don't worry, Sakura-chan," Naruto tried to comfort her with a tired grin on his face. "He probably just didn't get laid last night or something. I've heard his favorite girl at the 'tea house' he likes is sick or something."

Kakashi's eyebrows went up to his hairline.

"Baka, don't mention such things in front of a lady," Sakura chastised him. Naruto pouted and turned to Sasuke.

"Ne, sorry, Sasuke-chan," Naruto said dramatically. "I didn't mean to offend your delicate, virgin ears."

Both whacked him in the back of his head.

"Don't be an idiot, you jackass," Sasuke said. But Kakashi noted the amused twitch to his lips as he said it. Kakashi wondered if he was in bizarro land. They ravenously devoured the bentos Sasuke handed out, and then the clones came back.

"Ok you guys, ready?" Naruto asked. They nodded, and Naruto dispelled them, grabbing the kunai out of his clone before it hit the ground. Then he sat with a thump, and the three of them appeared to all pass out.

Yes, Kakashi decided, this was definitely wacky world. Then his own shadow clone came back and dispelled, and he understood the desire for a nap as he sorted through the clone's memories of the morning. Apparently, his brats were trying to figure out jutsu scrolls in one of the nearby training grounds. Which explained why the other Jounin thought him so lazy. Well, lazier than he really was, anyway.

It was a good half an hour later before any of them stirred, and another few minutes before they could muster the energy to sit up.

"Do you have the chakra to make clones before afternoon or should we forego it this time?" Sakura was asking. Naruto yawned and cracked his neck.

"Nah, I'm good. You guys alright for it?"

When he received two nods, they went through the process again. Kakashi wondered where the seal strips from the first time went, as he saw both Sakura and Sasuke's backs were bare of the old seals. The three new clones popped into existence and promptly headed out. Kakashi wondered where they were going if they were supposed to meet him to do the mission and created a clone to follow them. When it dispelled a short while later, letting him know that the clones were back to practicing in their own training ground, Kakashi realized his kids hadn't ditched him, and the real ones were waiting for him right where they were supposed to be. Asuma and the others, he realized, must have seen clones working while the real ones had been with him, doing the crappy D-ranked mission.

His anger at their deception evaporated at the knowledge they were innocent, only to be replaced by anger at himself for apparently neglecting the brats. He was sure Minato-sensei would never have let such a large thing slip by him. Looking at his kids, he promised he would do better by them. Kakashi dropped down from his tree and entered the clearing.

"So we need to talk."

His three students looked up at him.

"No mission today Sensei?" Sakura asked. Kakashi ignored her.

"The three of you have been busy little bees," Kakashi said, and watched the surprise cross all of their faces. Sakura bit her lip with worry, but the closed off, guarded looks on the boys face were what concerned Kakashi. Those looks said he was the enemy, and had to be guarded against or he would take something of value. He debated plunging ahead anyway, then shook his head. He'd promised to do better and he owed it to his old sensei and his old teammates to do right by these kids. So, though the idea of people invading his personal space caused his gut to tense, he invited them back to his apartment.

He'd thought the walk there was tense and painfully awkward. It didn't hold a candle to when they were all actually at his place. Which was when he realized he didn't actually have four chairs in his living room. In fact, he only had the dilapidated but really comfortable old couch which was situated facing the television. And he wanted this to not come across as him lecturing the three of them, so he thought having them together on the couch while he brought a chair in from the kitchen probably wouldn't create the best environment. He was, after all, trying to break the them vs. him mentality they seemed to have going.

So he dragged them all into the kitchen where he at least had a table they could sit around and enough chairs for them all to actually sit in_._

"Er, would any of you like tea?" he asked, vaguely recalling faint memories from his youth of being admonished to offer guests something to drink.

"Yes, please, Sensei," Sakura said. Sasuke nodded and Naruto shrugged. Kakashi filled his kettle and set it on the stove, but then realized he would have to find four cups. He rummaged through his cupboards until he found a bunch of dusty cups which must have belonged to the previous tenants, as he couldn't for the life of him remember where else they might have come from. He quickly rinsed them out and set them on the table, then measured and dumped the tea into the pot and poured the water in to let it steep. When he'd poured for everyone, Kakashi realized he was out of inane things to do and that it was probably time to actually talk.

"If you would like another Jounin-sensei," Kakashi began slowly. "I will understand and accept that. I can fill out the transfer request in the morning, if you like. I'm sure there are many other Jounin who come more easily to teaching than I do."

All three genin snapped their eyes directly to him.

"Sensei?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"I've been trying to understand why my genin would hide their development from me, and this is the only answer I can come up with," Kakashi said. "Otherwise, why wouldn't you share with me when Sasuke activated his Sharingan? Or that Naruto is a budding fuuinjutsu prodigy? Or that Sakura is delving into medical jutsu and genjutsu both with fervor?"

They were silent. Sakura looked down and bit her lip as Sasuke glared into his cup and Naruto tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.

"Well?" he prompted.

"Because you wouldn't care," Naruto finally said bluntly. "You leave us waiting for you for hours, so can you really blame us for coming up with something to do when you aren't around? And if you can't bother to show up, why would you care to hear about what we do when you aren't around."

"Have I neglected your training?" Kakashi asked. "If you compare what I've taught you over the past few weeks to what the other new genin have learned, have you been short changed?"

"No, Sensei," Sakura admitted. "Ino even said her sensei hasn't gone over half the things you've shown us yet." He noted Sasuke and Naruto both looked surprised at that and wondered if either of them ever spoke with the other new genin; given their pasts, he guessed not.

"So leaving you to your own devices for a few hours hasn't hurt your progress. And I have my reasons for letting you train yourselves: increased teamwork and bonding, teaching you self-reliance, letting you work out what I've shown you and decompress a bit. None of which, I realize, seem very important at twelve, but I assure you all of them are essential," Kakashi said. "And let me be very clear about this so there's no misunderstanding: I care very much."

He had their rapt attention at that, Sasuke and Naruto particularly.

"Mou, would any of you like to tell me anything about your accomplishments over the past few weeks?" Kakashi prompted, hoping one of them would begin to open up. The three of them all looked to each other, then nodded. Kakashi felt the tension he hadn't realized he was carrying in his shoulders relax.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

They had spent the rest of the afternoon talking, filling Kakashi in on what they'd managed to accomplish and listening to his advice and suggestions and plans for future training. It was oddly satisfying for all of them. He heard about Sasuke activating his Sharingan, and his attempts at evolving it to three tomoe. Sakura told him how she'd become interested in medical jutsu and what she was trying to learn. And Naruto… Naruto was telling him all about the seals he'd created.

He'd taken out a storage scroll and unsealed a large jutsu scroll where he'd made all of his notes and calculations on the Onigiri Kage Bunshin and the Anata Kage Bunshin, as Naruto had taken to calling them.

"So basically, I just added another layer to the durability seals I created so that it's…"

Kakashi let Naruto's voice wash over him. He'd thought himself proficient in the use of seals, but Naruto had lost him in the first few sentences of his technical explanations. And the diagrams and calculations Naruto was showing him… the kid was doing things with seals he'd never even heard of, much less seen. He made a note to find Jiraiya, who was one of the world's foremost seal masters, to get him to talk to the kid to make sure he wouldn't blow himself up.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

After that day, their training sky rocketed. With his guilt over allowing his attention to lapse, Kakashi began to truly devote himself to his team. To say the training was intense would be a bit of an understatement.

Kakashi began working on Sasuke's Sharingan to help him develop all three tomoe, and to better understand and utilize what he already had. For Naruto, he taught him all he knew about seals—which he'd soaked up so quickly and easily he knew the boy was already close to out-pacing him. And it was the same for Sakura with medical jutsu.

But Kakashi had more to teach them than just those things. He was not one of Konoha's elite Jounin for his looks, after all, no matter how far past his prime his colleagues thought he was. So Kakashi dedicated considerable time and effort to each skill he felt it necessary for a successful shinobi to have. He worked with all of them on stealth, infiltration, information gathering, taijutsu, strategy, tactics, stamina, chakra control, and a whole host of other things that other Jounin sensei rarely touched on, much less demanded excellence in.

He pushed them—hard, fast, and far—and they took to it like ducks to water. So when Kakashi requested a C-rank mission almost three months ahead of schedule, and the Hokage questioned whether his team was ready, Kakashi was able to answer 'yes' with the utmost confidence that they were.

"Hm, well, I have one I was going to give to a more experienced Genin team," the Hokage mused, wondering at Kakashi's assurance. He'd never seen the man so confident and… peaceful?

"We'll take it," the Jounin said. "My kids can handle it."

The Hokage bit back a smile at that—_his kids._ Yes, it seemed Kakashi had finally managed to find some semblance of peace with his past.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"I have acquired for us a mission of great import," Kakashi announced when he joined them that afternoon. All three students watched him warily, and he pouted—his kids didn't trust him, it seemed. Then he smirked, remembering that they had good reason.

"We… have a C-ranked mission!" Kakashi said.

"Really?"

"Ne, ne, what is it, Sensei?"

"Do we get to do something cool? Something totally awesome?"

"We'll be saving villages from torrents of raging floods, plucking them from the midst of disaster and will no doubt be lauded by all as great heroes," Kakashi said.

"Really?" All three had wide, gleaming eyes.

"Nope," Kakashi said, crushing them. "We'll be building up levees."

All three deflated.

"Still, it is a C-rank. Meet me at the North gate tomorrow at five, ready for an extended mission absence. Do you remember what does and doesn't go in your packs?"

They all nodded.

"Good. Dismissed. No more training today—that's an order."

All three pouted—though Kakashi knew the boys would protest calling it that—and Kakashi grinned as he disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

When Kakashi showed up at the Rusty Canteen that night, he grabbed a chair with the usual crowd of Jounin.

"Yo."

"Kakashi," Hayate slid a bottle of sake over to him. "What's this I hear about you requesting a C-rank for your brats?"

"What?" Kurenai asked, eyes wide. Asuma and Gai just stared.

"Already?" Genma asked. "Haven't you only had those brats for a few weeks?"

"Meh, about three months," Kakashi shrugged.

"But I was told that we wouldn't be allowed a C-rank until the first six months pass, to allow us time to really concentrate on getting our teams in shape," Kurenai said, concerned.

"What can I say? They're good kids," Kakashi slurped his sake down as the waitress cleared the table, blocking views of his face. "Exceptional kids."

"Mm, well, from the Academy reports, I can see maybe Sasuke being ready," Asuma drawled. "But that Haruno girl was nothing special, and Uzumaki was dead last."

"Not everything worth knowing is written in a report," Kakashi said cryptically. "Besides, we're only helping to build levees for the annual floods."

"And let me guess," Genma rolled his eyes. "You get one of the cushy port cities?"

"Maa, nothing so luxurious, no," Kakashi said. "Smaller place up north. Kimato."

"And the old man's sending fresh genin up there?" Asuma asked, whistling. "I did that mission as a Chuunin one year. Here's hoping none of you drown."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next morning, the Genin of Team 7 were shocked to see that not only was Kakashi not late, he was in fact _early_. And he got right down to business when the three of them showed up, too.

"Alright," he said. "First thing's first. What's in your packs?" For three genin on their first mission out of Konoha, he expected the packs to be bulging. Instead, they looked barely full. When his kids emptied them to show only a couple of scrolls, though, Kakashi understood. There were definite benefits to having a budding fuuinjutsu prodigy on one's team.

"Ah. I'm going to assume you all have at least the standard supply lists?" They all nodded.

"And in the event we have to leave without our packs, you're not carrying anything you care overly much about leaving behind, are you?" They shook their heads no.

"Good. The client doesn't expect us for five days, but that doesn't mean we can slack. I expect us there in three. We'll be using the tree-walking technique to help us run through the forests until they're too thin to provide a cover. Do you remember my showing you how last week?" he asked, and they nodded.

"Then let's head out," Kakashi said, using the ANBU hand signals as well as his voice to give the orders. He was slowly teaching them the unspoken language, knowing all three would be good enough for it later on if they were so inclined.

_:More leaves come?:_ Sasuke signed back clumsily, asking about the half-dozen Jounin they'd all spotted.

_:No. Go.:_ Kakashi replied, directing them ahead of him North-Northwest, and let them leap off before turning to his audience.

"Mou, we'll be back in a few weeks," he said cheerily. "Ja mata ne." Hayate, Genma and Anko rolled their eyes. Asuma, Kurenai and Gai nodded, impressed by the professionalism, efficiency and competence Kakashi had managed to drill into his genin in such a short time. Kakashi ignored them all, having made his point, and turned to catch up with his kids.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So, this is Kimato, hunh?" Naruto asked, looking at the rather dusty, desolate looking town nestled into a shallow valley at Fire's northeast border.

"We're supposed to be saving _this_ place from flooding?" Sasuke asked skeptically. "It looks like it hasn't rained here in about a year."

"Hmm, well, that's part of the problem," Kakashi said. "When spring comes, all the snow in the mountains way up there melts." He gestured to the mountains in the distance as he spoke.

"But those same mountains throw a lot of the rain in other directions the rest of the year. So the ground stays very dry all year, except for when the spring floods come from spring melt. This little place is where the all the mountain streams meet and the flooding begins. And the water spills into other springs that cause flooding all the way down Fire until it empties in the gulf. It goes down to a trickle up here after about two or three weeks, and leaves this place in drought the rest of the year. About 10-12 teams get sent out every spring to reinforce the levee system from here to the Gulf to keep the water in the rivers and out of the towns."

"Why don't they just find a permanent solution to the problem instead of just patching everything up every year?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Hmm, well," Kakashi considered. "It is a couple million gallons of rushing flood water. I imagine it's not the easiest thing in the world to deal with, ne?"

Naruto and the others all agreed that that sounded like a really quite reasonable explanation, but that didn't stop Naruto from continuing to think about it.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"I ask for shinobi, and this is what Konoha gives me? Kids? Scrawny kids?" The headman of the village was obviously disappointed and incredulous when he met Team 7 the next morning.

"I assure you, my students are fully capable of handling anything that might occur in this mission," Kakashi said. "But in case an emergency comes up, I'm a Jounin of Konoha, and will make sure the mission is a success."

The headman still didn't look too pleased, but nodded his acceptance anyway, realizing there wasn't much of anything he could do about it regardless of his satisfaction with the team Konoha had assigned him. He turned on his heel, leading them to a large one-room structure just outside of the main village.

"Spring floods start in about two weeks," he said gruffly, clearly still not happy about the young genin he was assigned. "What we need from you lot is to go make big sandbags. There's a barren field a few miles out we always use. The village women weave the bags all year long, so we have plenty of them for you to fill. Once you fill up a pallet's worth of bags, bring 'em back and we'll show you where and how to stack 'em."

He threw the door open and motioned them through.

"How many bags do you need?" Sakura asked, seeing the large room full of sacks stacked from one side of the room to the other and all of them reaching all the way up to the roof.

"All of 'em."

Even Kakashi's eyes widened.

"Holy shit," Naruto said. The others only silently agreed.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

That night, after a few applications of Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, the headman and many of the villagers of Kimato had a lot more appreciation and respect for Konoha shinobi generally and Team 7 in particular. They were given a tiny room in the headman's house where they all bunked down together. Kakashi claimed the futon, citing seniority. The genin all rolled their eyes but didn't complain—much—as Naruto unsealed their sleeping bags.

But even as his team went to sleep, Naruto's mind was too caught up in the problem of the annual floods to let him rest. No one had noticed when a handful of the kage bunshin he'd created to help with the sandbags had slipped away to inspect the levees and the riverbanks. Some of them had followed the almost dry riverbed all the way down to where it emptied into a much larger river. The path had obviously been man-made, and the river it fed was already high and raging.

One clone followed the river downstream to where it emptied into the gulf, catching sight of at least a dozen villages along the way with sandbags being piled up along the levees. He wondered if any of these villages were the ones Kakashi mentioned as also having hired Konoha to help with building up the levees. Then the clone decided it had seen everything it could and dispelled itself.

Naruto, lying in his sleeping bag and staring at the ceiling, quietly absorbed the knowledge that the water from the spring melt really wasn't of any use anywhere. And he thought about the dusty, parched landscape around him. Kimato could use the water, just not so much all at once. He wondered if there was anything he could do.

The next morning, when they returned to the field to continue filling sandbags, Naruto thought the area looked rather like a bowl from all of their work. Then he blinked as thoughts seemed to swirl together in his mind, and the tentative beginnings of an idea began to form. So when he created his army of kage bunshin, he directed them to continue digging out the bowl. And as his body worked to fill sandbag after sandbag, his mind worked out a way to fill the bowl.

When they finally broke for lunch, Naruto quickly snatched a storage scroll from his pouch, and unsealed an even larger scroll on which he began frantically making notes. His team only shook their heads at him, well used to his antics by now.

"We'll bring you back a bento, Naruto," Sakura offered. Naruto only grunted and continued his frenzied calculations. When his team came back, he was far too deep into his work to even notice.

"Tch, leave him be," Sasuke said when Kakashi was about to physically drag him away from the scroll. "It's not as though we don't have enough Narutos already helping us."

"Yeah, and who knows what he's coming up with," Sakura added. "Maybe it'll make all this go faster."

Kakashi shrugged; if the rest of his team wasn't going to complain about Naruto slacking, he was inclined to let him continue creating. He'd yet to see Naruto come up with something that wasn't incredibly useful and innovative. Or, recalling the seal that had turned Sasuke's hair as pink as Sakura's for a few hours, at the very least entertaining. He turned back to the worksite and saw the thousand Naruto clones still digging and filling sandbags. And Sasuke was right; there really were enough Narutos to go around already.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

When Naruto finally came up for air, he looked around to see it was getting dark out, and that his team was just cleaning up for the day.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Back with the land of the living?" Sakura asked teasingly.

"Hunh?" Naruto scratched his head.

"Want to tell us what you were working on?" Kakashi interrupted. He ignored the glares from Sasuke and Sakura his question prompted—they'd long since stopped asking for fear Naruto would spew seal-speak at them.

"Oh! Right. So, what I wanted to do was find a way to move the water from the flood to the bowl, because they look like they could use it. The water, that is, not the bowl. But I couldn't think of any transportation seals that I knew of, so I started on modifying a storage seal into a two-part seal, so that the first half would automatically store the water in it when water touches it and then the second half automatically empties the water out, that way it can move the water from where it is to where I want it to be, but I had to figure out…"

When Kakashi felt even his eyes glazing over, he cut him off.

"Er, Naruto?" he said. "Maybe a little less technical jargon?" Naruto huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Fine then," he pouted. "How's this for less technical: Water touch seal one, water move to seal two. No more flood. Lake for Kimato. The end."

Kakashi blinked as all of the implications wound their way through his thoughts.

"Can you demonstrate?" he asked. Naruto shrugged.

"Sure."

Kakashi watched in fascination as Naruto casually and seemingly carelessly scrawled the sealing script on two ofuda, the ink becoming infused with his chakra with every stroke of the brush. Then the brush disappeared as Naruto's fingers flicked through a long series of hand seals before slapping one hand on each ofuda.

"Fuuin," Naruto said, then exhaled harshly. "Well, that's done. Anyone have a bowl handy?"

Kakashi unsealed a dog dish from one of his own storage scrolls and handed it over. Naruto looked at him oddly, as though he was wondering why Kakashi carried around a dog dish but wasn't quite brave enough to ask.

"For my dog summons," Kakashi offered. "When I give them treats during training."

"You have dog summons?" Naruto asked, then shook his head. "No, wait, never mind. So, watch."

One seal he put in the bottom of the dog dish, and the other he held in his hand, taking out his canteen and beginning to pour water over it. It vanished, only to reappear in the dish.

"Cool," Sakura said as she watched.

"And you think this could work for the melt water?" Kakashi asked.

"Mm hmm," Naruto nodded. "And that this field could be the bowl."

His teammates eyed the field.

"That… will be a lot of digging," Sasuke finally said.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi had tasked Naruto with working out the final kinks of how the sealing system would work as he sent a message to the Hokage explaining the situation and requesting permission to renegotiate their mission. In the event that permission was denied (which Kakashi said was unlikely) or the village declined the offer (which Naruto thought even less likely, given how much they seemed to prize water), Kakashi also had Team 7 continue their sandbagging efforts. This had the dual purpose of continuing to hollow out the bowl shape for seal structure, should that go forward.

The cry of a hawk drew all of their attention to the sky, pulling even Naruto out of his seal-induced trance. All Konoha shinobi were trained to respond to a hawk from their first days in the Academy on; they were the Hokage's best non-shinobi messengers. Though Naruto had still been frustrated by the length of time the message took.

As the hawk soared down to them, looking for a perch to land on, Kakashi threw up an arm. He refrained from wincing as the bird dug its talons into his arm and simply reinforced the skin with a bit of chakra to prevent punctures. Then he took the message out of the pouch and read it through, deciphering the code as he went as easily as if it weren't encoded at all.

"Well?" Naruto asked impatiently, tapping his fingers against his leg from all of his nervous energy.

The Hokage had given him permission to renegotiate. He had also made it abundantly clear that he wanted to have a long talk with Kakashi when Team 7 returned to Konoha. He winced at that; the language the Hokage had used had made it clear this was not to be a friendly chat.

"Home," he ordered the bird, launching it in the air.

"Kaka-sensei, can we do it or not?" Sakura asked. Sasuke looked at him, head tilted to one side in question. Kakashi smiled at his team.

"Let's go talk to the headman," he said.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto refrained from groaning at Kakashi's bargaining tactics. As brilliant a shinobi as he was, negotiations were clearly not his strong point. So Naruto subtly shoved an elbow in his ribs, used the ANBU sign language to tell Kakashi _target mine_ (which, though somewhat morbid as it was supposed to be used for assassinations, was the only sign he'd been taught so far that might apply) and took over.

"Ah, honorable headman, I can see you have some doubts," Naruto said, nodding wisely. "But then, I remember you also had doubts that we were capable of accomplishing the mission you originally contracted Konoha for."

"Hmm, that is true," the headman nodded. _Remind him he was wrong about our claims once: Check_, Naruto thought. _Now to bring up the constant drought and cost of dealing with the floods each year._

"Still, I know you are a clever man, for you must be to have kept Kimato in such bounty, even with such drought. And prosperous as well, as you must be to hire a team of shinobi every year to deal with floods. So I can understand why a smart headman such as yourself might be skeptical of our claim."

_Check, check, and: Make him feel like I'm on his side, check again._

"It's not that I disbelieve you, you understand," the headman said, rubbing his chin in though. "But it seems far too good to be true. And if Konoha could do such a thing, why would they wait so many years to offer up such a solution?"

"Ah, but this is the first time that my team has been assigned such a task. It is the problem, you understand, that comes with administering a government," Naruto explained, trying to get the headman to sympathize. "With so many people to be responsible for, things often get the simplest solution instead of the best. For example, the simplest solution in this case has been assigning a team to do exactly as you contracted for: help build up levees for the yearly spring thaw. As a headman yourself, you must understand how such a thing might come to be when you have dozens upon dozens of requests and complaints a day."

The headman nodded wisely, understanding and sympathizing with Naruto's point. Naruto refrained from grinning; this was much easier than the various sales pitches he'd made over the years in the Akasen. He already had the headman was eating out of the palm of his hand. Sakura and Sasuke, he noted from the corner of his eye, were giving him baffled looks, wondering where this version of him had come from. And Kakashi… Kakashi only looked bored as ever, though Naruto noticed he was watching him sharply.

"It was by both of our villages' good fortune that this year, it happened to be my team assigned to your request, honorable headman," Naruto continued. "My team is uniquely qualified to fill not only your original request for assistance in sandbagging the levees, but also in that we were able to see a possibility for a permanent solution to the dual issues of flooding and drought. Of course, should you decide it is in the best interests of your village to decline our offer, we will act with the honor of all Konoha shinobi and complete our original mission, please rest assured of that. But I hope you will at least allow us a brief demonstration of what we are offering, so that you might truly consider it."

"I would be honored to see what solution the honorable shinobi of the great Konohagakure no Sato might offer our humble village," the headman said as he bowed his head briefly in agreement.

"I am something of a practitioner of a rather esoteric shinobi discipline," Naruto said as he set out the two bowls they'd brought with them just for this purpose.

"It is a very ancient and subtle art, one which not many see the value in. Indeed, just looking at these two thin strips of paper would make any clever man wonder what purpose they might actually serve," he continued, holding the two ofuda up for the headman to look at. "The script is peculiar and illegible, the paper wont to tear at the lightest tug, if it doesn't first blow away in the gentlest of breezes."

_Bad plan! _Kakashi signed to him, worried Naruto was going to blow it all now. _Fail!_ Naruto ignored him, placing the two ofuda in separate bowls. The headman was watching in captivation, completely entranced by Naruto's performance. Just as Naruto planned.

"However, what might look delicate and frail and indecipherable can actually serve great purpose when in the hands of one who can make sense of them. Watch," he said, taking his canteen and pouring the water into one bowl. The headman gasped as he watched it appear in the second.

"What we propose, honorable headman," Naruto said as he continued to pour water into the bowl. "Is to move the flood water from the river to a reservoir, just as the water from this canteen is moved from bowl to bowl. Then Kimato will be safe from the flood, and have a supply of water that won't run out." Naruto—ever the performer—timed it so that just then, the last of the water dropped from the canteen and the first bowl went dry. He let the headman sit in silent contemplation for a few moments, letting the spell he'd woven sink in.

"Of course, it is in the hands of such clever men as the headman and the elders of this village to make such a decision about the possibility of such a change in the way of life for those of Kimato," Naruto said, pouring the water from the second bowl back into his canteen. "One such as myself would never presume to be qualified to make such a decision. All I ask is that you consider it, honorable headman. Now please excuse us, we still have the sandbagging to finish." He reached into the bowls to peel out the seals when the headman stopped him.

"Wait," he said. "I would… like to confer with the village elders about your proposal. If it would please you, honored guests, I would humbly ask that you wait for our return."

"It shall be as you request, honored headman," Naruto said, bowing his head. He didn't bother holding back his grin as the headman hurried from the room.

"What was that?" Kakashi asked, baffled by Naruto's actions.

"You were screwing it up," Naruto scoffed. "Haven't you ever done any sort of negotiating before?"

"Maa, my skills lend themselves more towards assassinations and black ops work than diplomacy," Kakashi said, more openly than anything he'd said in a long time. "You don't seem to have that trouble."

"Yeah, where did that come from Naruto?" Sakura asked. "It was like you were a… a merchant or a… hmm, a…"

"Swindler," Sasuke offered.

"Yeah, a swindler or something."

Naruto shrugged.

"Well, I've been both," Naruto said, much to all of his team's surprise.

"What?" he asked a their looks. "I'm an orphan. I had to raise funds for the Academy somehow. I've sold everything from snake oil to sugar to secrets and all that's in between."

"Doesn't the Orphans' Fund provide for things like that?" Kakashi asked.

"Tch," Naruto scoffed, looking away. "If it makes you feel better to think so. Now quickly, before they come back. What are we supposed to charge for this?"

"The Hokage advised that a large, permanent seal structure like this is worth an A-rank to an AA-rank mission," Kakashi said. "Danger from enemy shinobi is of course low, but the danger from crafting the seal is high, and the number of people who can do it is low, so…"

"Yeah, yeah, supply, demand, all that, I got it," Naruto said, waving him off. "Now hush, they're almost back."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The headman had come back with a handful of old men Kakashi assumed were the village elders. They'd asked for another demonstration and Naruto had graciously complied. As he watched Naruto negotiate with men five times his age or more—and get the better of them—Kakashi tried to figure the boy out.

He was incredibly open, except when he was being cagey. He was brilliant, but had the worst Academy grades he'd ever seen. He was sneaky and sly, except when he was being loud and bold and _orange_, of all things. And he was exceptionally self-sufficient, even for a child shinobi, except for when he was so vulnerably needy that even Kakashi had trouble turning him away. He was a host of contradictions. And with all of the strange things he knew and did and said, Kakashi was even more confused by him.

Then Naruto named an outrageous figure, and Kakashi had to hold back from choking. And he watched with amazement as Naruto bargained harder and better than a fishmonger's wife until he got the deal he wanted and left Kimato's headman looking thrilled to have it.

"Then we're agreed, honorable headman," Naruto said as he bowed.

"We are," the headman agreed, bowing back. "To be paid quarterly over the course of five years."

For the first time since he'd gotten the message, Kakashi was glad he had a long meeting scheduled with the Hokage.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Well, Naruto," Kakashi asked. "What now?"

"Whaddya mean, Kaka-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm? Oh, just that you've so far managed to invent a completely new seal structure that will change the lives of the entire village, get our mission upgraded to an A-ranked mission, and single-handedly renegotiate the terms of our mission, bargaining to get terms most favorable to Konoha. So, what's next, Taichou-chan?" Kakashi asked with a grin.

"What?" Naruto half asked, half yelled. "But that's… you… gah!"

He glared at Sakura and Sasuke, who hadn't bothered to hide their snickering.

"And you two are supposed to be on my side," he pouted accusingly.

"Of course, Naruto-taichou," Sakura said innocently.

"Anything you say, Taichou," Sasuke agreed.

"…You suck," Naruto said.

"Seriously though, you're the seal expert here," Kakashi said. "What do you need us to do?"

Naruto looked up at him from under his eyelashes to see if he was really serious. It appeared he was.

"Well," Naruto hesitated, nervous now that they all were looking at him. "What would really help? If you could somehow figure out how big the reservoir needs to be, and start digging it."

"Sure," Kakashi agreed easily. So as Naruto pulled out his giant scroll filled with inscrutably obscure notes, Kakashi sat down for some calculations of his own. As he wrote out all of the information he had on the spring thaw, he noted Sasuke idly sharpening and cleaning his kunai and shuriken and Sakura… hovering over his shoulder.

"Carry the three, Kakashi-sensei," she said patiently. He looked down at his equation and realized she was right. A few seconds later, she spoke up again.

"You forgot an 'X' Kaka-sensei," she corrected him. Kakashi grit his teeth and added the 'X' where she'd pointed—after looking back over his work for a few moments and seeing she was right. Again.

"Kaka-sensei, you need to factor it to…"

Kakashi tossed the scroll at her and plopped down next to Sasuke.

"So," he said. "You come up with a way to make me feel inadequate and completely superfluous today, too?"

"Well," Sasuke said, never looking away from his kunai. "I could show you my two Sharingan eyes if you really want."

Then Sasuke was falling ass over teakettle into a stack of sandbags, and Kakashi was stretching out like a cat on top of the large pile, _Icha Icha Paradise_ in hand as he proceeded to ignore his entire team.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Kaka-sensei, are you done pouting yet?" Sakura called up. Kakashi arched an eyebrow, but continued reading without acknowledging her. He was _not_ pouting.

"Come on, Kaka-sensei, we need help to make the reservoir," Sakura said.

"Don't bother," Sasuke told her. "He's feeling old. Probably we should just leave him so he doesn't have to strain himself. And I bet we can get Naruto to modify some of the explosive seals to have bigger explosions…"

He was cut off as Kakashi appeared in front of them, casually sending Sasuke flying into the sandbag pile again. Kakashi had decided a while back that whenever Naruto and explosives were in the same sentence, it was time for him to intervene.

"Oh, are we ready?" Kakashi asked innocently.

"Hearing problems and gray hair are signs of old age, you know," Sasuke replied, getting up and brushing himself off.

"It's _silver_," Kakashi protested. "And it's been that way since I was a child, twerp. Now come on. This old man still has a thing or two to teach you." Naruto trailed along after them, nose still stuck into the giant scroll he had two clones carrying so his hands were free to make notes.

"Now mark off the area we need to excavate," Kakashi ordered Sakura. "And I'll show you how ninjutsu can be applied in non-combat situations. Sasuke, you're going to help."

Sasuke looked between him and Sakura.

"…Can I help mark the area instead?" he asked.

"No," Kakashi said as Naruto and Sakura snickered. After Sakura had finished, she sat back with Naruto as they watched Kakashi and Sasuke.

"Ready?" Kakashi asked. Sasuke nodded. "Then let's do this."

Kakashi stood in the middle of where the giant reservoir was to be—and it was quite a bit larger than he'd imagined it would be—and began running through hand seals at a furious pace, his fingers flying so quickly it was hard for any of the genin to pick out any one seal.

"Underworld Swamp!" Kakashi called as he slammed a hand to the ground, sending his chakra out deep into the ground until the entire area Sakura had marked off was nothing more than a muddy mess. But he didn't stop there. Before the mud could swallow him down he stabilized his feet with chakra and began the seals for another jutsu.

"Wind Tunnel!" he yelled, directing a tornado of wind around the mud, flinging it everywhere. When he let the jutsu dissipate, the reservoir had been completely carved out. He looked around and nodded, pleased with himself. Then he climbed out of it and looked to his three genin, completely covered in mud and glaring at him.

"Oh, looks like you three could use a bath," he chuckled. All of their eyes twitched, and they didn't even need to look at each other before they leapt into action together, tackling him and drawing him down into the mud with them. And he laughed as he let them, wrestling them all down until there wasn't an inch of them that wasn't caked with mud.

"Maa, maa, that's enough now," he said, hiding a grin as they all pouted. Really, they were all good kids. Great kids.

"Sasuke, you're up," he said. Sasuke looked at him incredulously.

"Oh, you want to get clean first?" Kakashi asked archly. "Well, alright." And he did a quick water jutsu that acted much like a fire hose, and drenched the kids, then himself.

"All clean," he said. They glared at him, now dripping wet. Sasuke sniffed at him imperiously, then jumped down into the reservoir to help him cover the area with a fire jutsu to set the base of the reservoir into an unnaturally hardened substance resembling concrete.

"That," Naruto said as he looked out over the reservoir. "Is one big-ass bowl."

"Wow," Sakura agreed, then looked up at him. "You're… a lot cooler than I thought, Sensei."

Kakashi slapped a hand to his forehead and shook his head. _Brats, all of them._

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto eyed the huge expanse of the reservoir that he was going to have to cover with seals and slowly blew out a breath. The thing was massive. And he hadn't taken into account that his normal way of doing a two part seal was to do both halves at the same time, which certainly wouldn't be possible when both areas were so large and so far apart.

Then he took a running leap off the side of the reservoir and landed in the middle to began painting the sealing script across the bottom of the basin. He worked through lunch, and then through dinner, until his teammates dragged him away back to the headman's house to force feed him and make him rest for a while. It wasn't a comfortable sleep; he hadn't realized how connected he remained to the seal through the active chakra until now. Which, he thought, was probably because he finished most seals within a few minutes.

So he snuck back the next morning before the others woke to finish the preliminary script for the reservoir, then headed to the dry riverbed to do the second half. When Sakura found him, she was anything but pleased.

"You didn't eat breakfast," she scolded him. He barely even looked at her, he was so caught up in the seal structure. It buzzed in his head, wanting to be complete. Demanding to be complete.

"Baka, are you even listening to me?" she demanded, raising a fist in warning. Kakashi grabbed in and shook his head, then crouched down in front of Naruto. He looked at the boy's face, then took his chin in his hand to force him to look at him.

"Hmm, the seal is already part-way active, isn't it?" he murmured. "So we didn't do you any favors last night dragging you away. Well, here. Eat this." He shoved a food pill into Naruto's mouth and he swallowed reflexively.

"That should hold you for a few hours anyway. Do you need us to do anything?"

But Naruto couldn't really hear him, he just wanted to go back to the seal. Kakashi sighed at Naruto's unresponsiveness.

"Come on," he told his team. "Leave him be. He has to finish, or it'll just pull at his chakra until he's left an empty husk."

"What!" Sakura and Sasuke screeched. "We've got to…"

"We've got to let him finish, and watch him carefully to make sure he doesn't overextend his chakra," Kakashi said. "But we need to let him finish."

So they spent the day observing him as he swept the riverbed with his brush and chakra. More and more of the villagers stopped what they were doing to watch along with them, fascinated by the strange ninja work.

It was sunset before Naruto dropped the brush. He put his hands together in a familiar seal, and created two dozen kage bunshin. Half of them immediately headed out. Kakashi eyed their direction and assumed they were going to the reservoir.

"Kaka-sensei," Naruto said, voice rough. "When I tell you, can you and Sasuke toss me up? I need a direct line of sight to the reservoir."

Kakashi and Sasuke nodded; Sakura fretted, biting her nails. Then the clones at the riverbed all got into place and Naruto was telling Kakashi he was ready. Sasuke and Naruto took a running start and Kakashi sent first Sasuke then Naruto high up. And when they began to lose speed, Sasuke and Naruto joined hands and Sasuke flung them in a circle to throw Naruto even higher.

Then the world stopped.

The amount of chakra was so oppressive even the villagers felt it. Thin lines of blue chakra shot down from where Naruto was barely visible anymore to the clones, who immediately started a long series of hand seals.

"Fuuin!" they finally yelled, slamming their palms to the ground, and the intricate script Naruto had spent the last two days painting suddenly began to move and writhe. Sasuke dropped to the ground in a crouch, and he and Kakashi and Sakura watched the sealing process with as much fascination as the rest of the villagers.

The script finally froze and settled into place, looking like nothing more than ripples in the bedrock. Then the clones disappeared and the lines of blue chakra feeding them went with them. Kakashi's eyes were already in the sky, calculating when Naruto would come back down and wondering what shape he would be in.

When he spotted him in freefall, he knew the shape was not good.

"Sasuke, send me up," Kakashi ordered. Back in Konoha, he would be able to do it himself, with the help of a nearby tree or tall building. But here, in the middle of nowhere with nothing taller than a house, he'd need help getting the lift. Sasuke nodded and cupped his hands, readying his chakra to boost Kakashi up in the air. Kakashi leapt and used his own chakra to help push off, and then he was near the boy and reached out with his chakra to draw him close.

Landing was second nature—reinforcing his legs with chakra so he wouldn't break anything or roll awkwardly—he'd been doing it long enough he no longer even had to think about it. Then Sakura and Sasuke were racing over to check on Naruto. And, he noticed, so was the headman.

"I didn't realize this would be so dangerous," the headman was saying to Kakashi.

"Everything has a cost," Kakashi replied, concentrating on trying to get a food pill into Naruto. "Many people think only of the wondrous things shinobi can accomplish so easily. What they don't understand is the hours and hours of training we must do everyday to be able to perform such tasks. The vast majority of our lives we must dedicate to the ninja arts, and they always require us to make some sacrifice to use them. So now you see that while the amount we requested in exchange for creating your reservoir may have seemed very high to you, the fact is the cost to us is equally high, but in a different currency."

"Is there anything I can do?" the headman asked, gesturing to Naruto. Sakura was stroking his throat to help the pill go down and Kakashi shook his head.

"No. We'll return to our quarters to tend to Naruto. As soon as he's healed, we'll take our leave."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto didn't wake up for two days. When he did, he was so groggy and out of it, it was all Kakashi could do to force some food and water into him before he went back to bed. The following day, however, he woke with much greater cognizance and a ravenous hunger, much to the relief of his team.

The fourth day, he insisted on getting out of bed, and threatened to go when their backs were turned if they didn't help him. That only made Kakashi tie him down and watch him like a hawk. Naruto decided not to antagonize him much after that; he'd never had someone look out for him like that before, and he found he kind of liked it.

After much begging, on the fifth day Kakashi allowed Naruto to get up and walk around the village for a while. He inspected the seals in the riverbed and the reservoir and proclaimed them perfect.

"Ne, Kaka-sensei," Naruto asked quietly tugging on his vest to get his attention. "Why are they all looking at me funny?"

Kakashi looked to the villagers, who were all looking at Naruto with a mix of admiration and respect on their faces. He shook his head that Naruto couldn't recognize it and began to explain it when they heard shouting.

"The floods are coming!" they heard being shouted throughout the village. "The floods are coming!"

Everyone was running towards the riverbed.

"Come on, let's see the seals in action!" Naruto said, breaking free of Kakashi and racing to follow the crowd. Kakashi cursed and followed, and Sasuke and Sakura shrugged and did the same. They all stopped in amazement at the sight.

A wall of raging water was gushing down the riverbed in a massive torrent. Everyone held their breath to see if the seals would work. Then the first of it passed the seals and disappeared.

The villagers started cheering.

"Let's go see the bowl!" Naruto said. "I wanna see the water appearing there, too."

Most of the village seemed to hear him and agree, as there was a stampede towards the basin. When they got there, the water had barely even spread enough to touch the sides of the basin they'd carved out, but the crowd was still cheering at it.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So, the Naruto Lagoon?" the Sandaime asked archly. Kakashi had just returned to Konoha with his team and had been immediately summoned to the Hokage tower for a debriefing.

"The _Great_ Naruto Lagoon," Kakashi corrected with a sigh.

"Ah, yes, of course," the Sandaime said with a grin. "The _Great_ Naruto Lagoon. Tell me, how do Sakura and Sasuke feel about that name?"

"The brats thought it was hilarious," Kakashi snorted.

"They thought it was funny?" the Hokage asked in surprise.

"Very," Kakashi said. "It was originally going to be the Naruto Lake, then those two heard about it and started campaigning the villagers to make it the Great Naruto Lake. I'm not sure how it got turned from Lake to Lagoon, though."

"They thought it was funny?" the Hokage repeated. All the psych profiles he'd seen on Uchiha Sasuke told him such a thing would make him enraged with jealousy and feelings of inadequacy. He wondered what Kakashi had managed to do in three months to change that reaction into a prank.

"Well, you see, it's Naruto, and he kept calling it a bowl, and a Naruto bowl is…" Kakashi trailed off scratching his head. "I guess you had to be there."

"Yes, I assume so," the Sandaime agreed. "And did you find it equally amusing for your work to be named after one of your students?"

"My work?" Kakashi asked, confused.

"Mm," Sandaime said, steepling his fingers in front of him. "You've been holding back on us, Kakashi. I had no idea you were such a seal master."

"…Wait, what?"

"Come now," the Hokage said reprovingly. "To be able to come up with the idea, then design and implement such a seal structure is so short a time is nothing short of genius. I had known you were studying them, of course, but you never let on you were so far along in your mastery."

"You think it was _me_ who came up with the seal structure?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, yes, who else?"

"Why do you think it's called the Great _Naruto_ Lagoon?"

"…Naruto created the seal structure for Kimato?" the Hokage asked, then shook his head. "He's only been studying seals for a few months—he didn't even know what a seal _was_ until I explained it the night he graduated from the Academy. And you want me to believe he somehow was the architect behind this?"

"You could ask any of my genin," Kakashi offered with a shrug.

"Ah, but they are _your_ genin," the Hokage said. "I have no doubt they would lie if you asked them to."

"Of course," Kakashi agreed. "But to lie to the Hokage? I think you overestimate me. Besides, you could ask anyone in Kimato, and they would say the same."

The Hokage turned in his chair to look out at the Monument. His hands absently went about filling and lighting his favorite pipe as he contemplated what Kakashi had said. After a few minutes of silence, he began to speak again, not looking back at him.

"I think you underestimate yourself, Kakashi-kun," the Hokage said. "I've seen you interact with your children, and I believe they'd do almost anything for you."

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi protested.

"This is not a criticism," the Hokage said as he turned to look Kakashi in the eye. "On the contrary; I'm very pleased with how you have managed to develop your team into a cohesive unit. And you should be proud of yourself as well."

Kakashi wasn't sure what to do or say, so he just sat in silence as the Hokage gave his pipe a few more quiet puffs.

"So, young Naruto really is a budding Fuuinjutsu prodigy?"

"He is," Kakashi affirmed. "He's already beyond my knowledge, though I try to guide him when I can. I've sent out some feelers to try to find Jiraiya so he can at least talk to the boy and make sure he isn't going to blow himself up, but without being able to go after any of the leads my feelers turn up I haven't been able to find him."

"Hmm." The Hokage gently tapped out the leaves from his now empty pipe. "Here is what we will do. I will give Team 7 two C-rank missions and two months to complete them. One will be to track down Jiraiya. The other is to track down Tsunade. I have messages to give them both."

"Both?" Kakashi asked weakly, scratching the back of his head.

"Both," Sandaime agreed. "And if you happen to convince Jiraiya to talk to Naruto while you deliver my message, well then, there's no harm in that."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo


	3. Chapter 3

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin **

**Chapter Three**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So we just have to track down some old geezers?" Naruto asked when Kakashi explained their new mission.

"Tsunade and Jiraiya were students of the Third, and are two of the legendary Sannin. They're more than just some old geezers," Kakashi said.

"Yeah, Tsunade-sama is a legendary medic nin," Sakura piped in, shaking her finger at Naruto. "She's contributed more to the advancement of medicine than anyone else. Ever."

Naruto gave a considering look.

"Does she… have a nickname?" he asked.

"Mm, well, she's called the Slug Tamer," Kakashi offered. "And… the Legendary Sucker."

Sakura squawked, Sasuke looked at him in disbelief, and Naruto nodded thoughtfully.

"And she has, you know," Naruto put his hands about a foot in front of his chest. "Big ones?"

Kakashi nodded vigorously.

"Biggest I've ever seen," he said. Sakura glared at them then hmphed as she turned away.

"And Jiraiya, he's a whoremonger, isn't he," Naruto asked matter-of-factly.

"Yes," Kakashi blinked, a bit disconcerted that Naruto knew such unfavorable information about two of the jewels in Konoha's crown. "In addition to being one of the world's foremost experts in fuuinjutsu, he does enjoy the company of a certain type of women."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that.

"Kaka-sensei, when he goes into a brothel, they close it down for him. Call a spade a spade," Naruto snorted. "So where are we looking for them?"

"The latest information the Hokage had showed Jiraiya to be somewhere in Lightning Country, so we can't go after him yet. But Tsunade was last spotted in Tea Country. It was two months ago, but it should give us a lead as to where to go next."

"Ne, Kaka-sensei, I might know a guy who knows a guy who Tsunade might be in debt to, and he might know more about where she is," Naruto said, careful to look out over the bridge instead of at any of his team. They, however, were all looking at him in interest.

"Oh really?" Kakashi asked, intrigued. "And how might you know him."

"Er, you know, just, hmm," Naruto sighed and rubbed his head. "He's just a guy a lot of people know. He's just… around, you know? So should I go talk to him?"

"Sure. In fact, we'll all go," Kakashi said.

"No!" Naruto whipped his head back around to look at Kakashi, which meant he missed it when Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him. "That would be… It's not a place… He wouldn't talk to you."

"Why wouldn't he?" Kakashi asked curiously. "I'm a Jounin."

"That's exactly why he wouldn't," Naruto said seriously. Kakashi frowned.

"Naruto, what kind of person is this?"

"The kind of person who can lend a lot of money to Tsunade without having to worry about getting it back, and then be able to keep pretty good tabs on her," Naruto said, licking his lips nervously. "The kind that doesn't like shinobi." And Kakashi understood; Yakuza.

"You're as much a shinobi as Kaka-sensei," Sakura said. "Why would he talk to you and not the rest of us?"

Naruto gave a sardonic smile even as Sasuke frowned.

"Because I wasn't always as much a shinobi as Kakashi-sensei or the rest of you," he said. "So even if I am a shinobi now, he'll talk to me."

"Alright," Kakashi agreed. "You go talk to him today and report back tomorrow morning. You're all dismissed. We'll meet at the South Gate tomorrow morning at six. I want to get an early start."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto was well aware that Kakashi was following him. He was sure that, if Kakashi had been really trying, Naruto would never have had a clue. Over the few months he'd had Kakashi as a sensei, he'd found out exactly why he was one of Konoha's elite Jounin. But either Kakashi didn't much care whether Naruto caught on or he was underestimating Naruto's perceptiveness. Most likely it was a little bit of both, though Naruto had also had the benefit of knowing Kakashi would almost certainly be following him even before he'd caught him at it. Because over his time as Kakashi's genin, Naruto had also learned that his sensei didn't give in easily, and when he did, it was because he had something else planned.

So instead of heading straight to the man he could ask his question, he instead meandered towards the center of town, near where the Hokage Tower was, then veered off on a side street that led to a busy market area. He ducked into a few different stores, knowing Kakashi wouldn't follow him inside where he was sure to be spotted. After he set up a pattern of going into a store, spending a while inside, then coming back out, he went into one that had a back door which led to an alley with an entrance to the Underground.

He slipped through without anyone taking a second glance, and knew he would have at least fifteen minutes before Kakashi would think to look for him. Which was thirteen minutes more than he really needed to disappear. The jumpsuit and his hitai-ate were quickly sealed away and exchanged for an old set of brown pants and his t-shirt. Then he slunk down through the false grate hidden behind a dumpster and was in the Underground.

It wasn't the sewer system, Naruto knew at least that, though he didn't know much more about the system of tunnels that spanned most of Konoha. But he thought it likely that it came close to overlapping either the sewers or an underground river since the place was always dripping. He was always careful to walk neither too close to the center of the tunnels where the water was deep enough in places to cover your ankles nor too close to the walls where he might run into one of the Underground's residents.

That was never fun.

Out of self-defense, Naruto had to completely ignore the sounds coming from various dark corners—moans and groans and whimpers and pleas for help. He had to ignore it, because if he looked, if he paid too much attention, he would see himself on every face and hear himself in every voice and would lose his in old, best forgotten memories.

So he kept his eyes straight ahead as he made way through the tunnels of the Underground, taking a few turns here and there until he found the exit he was looking for. He popped back up to the street behind one of Konoha's nicest brothels, which was across the street from Konoha's only casino. A few of the girls he knew from odd jobs he'd taken here and there when he was younger were in the back planting flowers and called out a hello to him and waved.

He waved back, then ducked into an alley to change again, this time into nice dark grey pants and a black long-sleeved shirt. Running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to tame it, Naruto headed towards the building situated behind the casino. He knocked out a pattern on the back door that announced he was a friendly. The door opened and he was allowed inside.

"Tell Jin that Naruto is here to see him," Naruto told the two big, hulking men who formed the welcoming committee. The one on the left nodded and headed back to deliver the message as the second hulk stayed to keep an eye on him. He might have known the code, but that didn't mean he was trusted. It took only a few more minutes before he was ushered into the back.

He hadn't been brought to Jin's office, he knew as he eyed the bare room with plain concrete floors and plastered walls. Another security measure, since he was an outsider now, that he wouldn't be allowed anywhere near something that actually had potentially damaging records.

"Naruto," Jin greeted, motioning for him to sit at the other metal folding chair at the opposite end of the scarred wooden table—the only furniture in the entire room. Naruto thought the naked bulb hanging from the ceiling made the whole thing just a touch over the top.

"It's been a long time. What business brings you back to my doorstep? You're not looking to run numbers for me again, are you?"

Naruto shook his head.

"I'm out of that business. I'm here about Senju Tsunade," Naruto told him. "I understand she owes you quite a bit of money?"

Jin's eyes narrowed.

"You always did know too much for your own good," Jin grumbled.

"How much is she in to you for again?" Naruto asked. Jin mentioned a figure and Naruto let out a whistle, tilting back in his chair.

"Was she at least any good?" Naruto asked, alluding to the rumor that Jin had only lent her the money because she was sleeping with him. Jin snarled.

"Hmm, I can't tell if that's a 'hell yes' or a 'hell no,' you know," Naruto mused.

"What is any of this to you?"

"Well, we may be able to help each other out," Naruto said, dropping the chair back onto all four of its legs and leaning forward. "You and I both know she's never going to make good on her debt to you. And you can't even, er, _persuade_ her to pay, like you would anyone else who tried to welch."

"How does you knowing this help me?" Jin asked.

"Because I know that you keep sharp tabs on her, just like you would anyone else who was in debt to you so much," Naruto said. "And I happen to need to know where she is. You give me that information, and I'll purchase her debt from you for, let's say, ten percent of its face value."

Jin raised an eyebrow and began to negotiate. Because the boy was right; Tsunade would never pay him back, and recouping even a portion of the money was better than nothing.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sakura valiantly tried to strangle the scream that was creeping up her throat and begging to be let out. Her parents, as much as they had supported her in the Academy, were now finding her life as a ninja incomprehensible. Being civilians, Sakura had the intellectual understanding that they _couldn't _really relate or understand. Sakura found she didn't care. And irrational though it was, they were her parents, so she wanted them to be able to automatically understand everything. Automatically and immediately.

"But you just got back," her mother was saying. "Surely it wouldn't matter if you took some time to come with us to Ippana. How can they expect you to leave again with only a day's notice?"

Sakura considered this briefly, wondering if they could be there and back in two days, would Kakashi-sensei be able to delay their departure for a day? It would please her parents, and she had to admit that it was nice to be home in bed with her mother cooking for her after so many nights in a sleeping bag with field rations.

"We haven't made the trip since you began the Academy," her father said. "Because we wanted you to be able to follow your dream. But our business has suffered since we've had to outsource our buying trips. It would only be a month or two. I'm certain there's nothing so pressing you can't go. It's not like we're at war, after all."

"A month or two?" Sakura asked incredulously. "What could you possibly need to buy in Ippana that would take that long?"

"Don't be silly, we only need a week or two in Ippana to make our purchases," her mother said. "But we have to get there and back, don't we? And it's a two week journey under good traveling conditions."

"Two weeks?" Sakura asked in disbelief. She could get there in a day. Sakura felt the gulf between her and her parents—between the life of a shinobi and the life of a civilian—very acutely just then.

"Mama, Papa, I'm a kunoichi," she tried to explain. "I have duties and…"

"You have duties to your parents," her father said firmly. "And you will be coming with us."

He stood up from the table and began to walk away, as though his declaration somehow put an end to it all.

"I _can't_, don't you understand?" Sakura said plaintively. "I already have another mission and…"

"You can, and you will," her father ordered. "End of discussion."

"Aren't you tired of playing at being a ninja yet?" her mother asked, voice tired and distraught.

"Playing?" Sakura asked in a whisper, staggered at the realization of what her parents thought she was doing.

"We aren't getting any younger, Sakura-chan," her mother continued. "It's long past time we started teaching you how to run the shop, so you and your husband can be prepared to take it over."

"Husband?" Sakura's eyes went wide.

"Horatsu-san's son is only a few years older than you," her father said. "They've made a few discreet inquiries."

"You don't mean Horatsu Barumo," Sakura asked in horror. He was eight years older than her, and had teased her relentlessly when she was a child. She supposed he was relatively attractive, except for an overly large nose, but she'd never felt anything more for him than annoyance at best and fear at worst.

"Of course," her mother said curiously. "Horatsu-san has a good import business. It would be a good match for our families."

"But not for me!" Sakura yelled, the scream finally bubbling out of her. "I'm a kunoichi, Mama. I'm not going to be a housewife, and _especially_ not to Horatsu Barumo."

"We haven't made any agreements yet, but the preliminary discussions have been fruitful," her father said. "If you're completely opposed to Barumo-san, I suppose we can see what other families might have sons…"

"You aren't listening," Sakura said. "I'm not going to be a shopkeeper. And you have no right to enter into any marriage negotiations without my consent. Don't you understand that I'm a ninja of Konoha?"

"You're my daughter, I have every right…"

"I'm the Hokage's ninja first," Sakura insisted. She saw the hand—she'd been training in taijutsu for years now, so how couldn't she? But the idea that her father would strike her was so unfathomable that she didn't comprehend what was happening until he'd struck her cheek. She raised a hand to where he'd slapped her and looked to him with wide eyes.

"If you are the Hokage's ninja before you are my daughter, then leave my house," her father said, turning his back to her. Still in shock, Sakura was only half-aware that the sound she heard was crying, and that it came from her mother. "Let him provide for you. When you are finished playing at being a kunoichi and are ready to accept your real duties and your marriage to Barumo-san, you may return with an apology and a properly humble manner about you."

"But Papa…"

"Until you are my daughter, I am not your father. Leave us."

Tears in her eyes, Sakura fled.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

When Kakashi arrived at their meeting place on the bridge, it was to find Sakura sobbing into Naruto's shoulder. Naruto had somehow managed to wedge himself onto the bridge's rail so that he could settle Sakura in his lap, but given the angle, Kakashi had to assume he was using chakra to hang on. Sasuke sat next to them, looking very awkward and self-conscious, but he had one arm around Naruto's waist and the other around Sakura's shoulders, offering what comfort he could.

The boys noticed his presence, and he cocked his head to the side to ask what was wrong. They shook their heads that they didn't know. Kakashi sighed and hefted himself up on the railing on Naruto's other side.

"Ne, Sakura," he said patting her back. "What's made you so sad?" The garbled wailing that came out was mostly lost into Naruto's shirt. Then she sniffled and turned her head so it was tucked under Naruto's chin and she could speak unimpeded.

"M-mama and Papa," she stuttered, still trying to calm her tears. "And Barumo! They w-want me _married_ of all things. And taking _two weeks_ to get to Ippana—apparently they must _crawl_ the whole way—but I don't _want_ to be a shopkeeper, I want to be a kunoichi."

The three males all blinked in confusion, then looked to each other to see if any of the others understood what she'd meant.

"Your parents want you to get married on the way to Ippana where you're going to be a shopkeeper in two weeks?" Sasuke tried.

"I am a _kunoichi_, not a _shopkeeper,_" Sakura insisted. "I don't care what they say. If they didn't want me to be a ninja before a daughter, they should never have sent me to the Academy."

Then the whole story came spilling out.

Kakashi didn't bother sighing when he heard what had happened; he'd expected it, though not quite so soon. Civilian families inevitably pushed their children into the Academy, thinking only of the prestige of having a ninja in the family. But civilian families were not at all equipped to deal with the life of a ninja. It rarely ended well, and almost never when the child was an only child, as Sakura was.

"Sakura," Kakashi said. "I don't have anything to say that could make you feel better. Really, I don't think there's anything that could. So instead, I'll give you a few truths to think on. You're a good kunoichi, and you'll be an even better one with time. You would be a great loss to the Shinobi Corps. But civilian families really can't handle shinobi lifestyles. So I want to warn you that a time may come that you have to make a choice between your family and being a kunoichi. But no matter what your choice, I will support you and help you however I can."

"Yeah, me too, Sakura-chan," Naruto piped up.

"Agreed," Sasuke said.

"Good," Kakashi said. "Now wipe your face so you can see properly and we'll head out. We still have our mission."

Sakura nodded sharply and took a spare bandana from her pouch. She didn't miss that he'd told her to do it so that her vision wasn't impaired instead of to make her look better, as her mother would have. And she found she preferred Kakashi's reason.

"Naruto, were you able to meet with your contact?" Kakashi asked. He nodded.

"She's on her way from Coral to Saijin City," Naruto said. "There's a poker tournament there she wants to play in. She'll be there in two days."

Kakashi blinked.

"That's… very specific information," Kakashi said. Naruto shrugged, knowing Jin had a very hefty investment in her. He thought of Tsunade's promissory notes sealed safely away in his pouch, and suddenly realized that it was now _him _who had a very hefty investment in her.

"Well then," Kakashi said when he decided Naruto wasn't going to offer up any additional information. "Let's go."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It was a two day journey for them to get to Saijin City. Saijin was a small city as far as that went, but one whose entire economy was based on vice. There were dozens of casinos, at least twice that number of brothels, and more bars, it was rumored, than could be found in the rest of Fire Country combined.

Kakashi only wished he were there on personal leave instead of a mission. Sighing, he turned to his kids.

"Do you know which casino is hosting the poker tournament?" Kakashi asked Naruto.

"The same one that does every year." Naruto shrugged. "The Hajimeto Hotel and Casino."

"Hmm, we'll have to find out where that is…"

"You don't know?" Naruto asked, surprised. "It's the best place in town. Jeeze, haven't you ever been here before?"

"No, are you saying you have?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto just shrugged. "Come on, I'll show you where the place is."

Kakashi eyed the casino Naruto pointed out with dismay. It was one of the taller buildings he'd seen in Saijin, and even from the outside he could tell they went for opulence. They also went for security, as it was clear no expense was spared there with discreet monitors covering every point of ingress he could see, from windows to roof. Then there were the more mundane physical guards posted around the actual entrances. He wondered if they had hired shinobi to help them set it up or whether they had someone on staff who was just that talented. He'd have to check the mission logs when he got back, to make sure nobody in Fire Country was going to an outside Hidden Village to hire shinobi.

"Sasuke, Sakura, circle the building. I want you to analyze the security and report back with any possible weak spots we could exploit."

They nodded and were off. Naruto watched him and waited.

"We aren't really going to try to break in, are we?" Naruto asked, shifting his weight uncomfortably.

"No, but it's a good exercise," Kakashi said.

"Good," Naruto said with relief. "Because these aren't the sort of people even a shinobi should piss off. At least, not without the Hokage behind him first."

"And you seem to know quite a bit about them," Kakashi replied. "How is that again?"

"Oh, you know," Naruto said with a shrug. "Where I grew up, it's kind of hard not to pick up on that kind of thing."

"Naruto, you grew up in Konoha," Kakashi said.

"And you think that somehow means the entire village is perfectly safe and crime-free?" Naruto asked incredulously. "Get real, Kakashi-sensei. The village isn't perfect, and there are any number of places shinobi don't bother patrolling."

The look in Naruto's eyes suddenly made the boy appear much older, and Kakashi wondered again what his life had been before being put on Team 7.

Sasuke and Sakura came back then and told them what they'd found on the security.

"Basically," Sasuke summed it up. "The only way anyone's getting into that casino right now is if they're one of the players."

Naruto cocked his head to the side in thought.

"I could probably play," he said. "I know a guy who could get me a seat in the tournament."

Sasuke's eyes cut straight to him, silently questioning how.

"But the amount you have to pay to be a player in the tournament is exorbitant," Sakura said with a sigh. "We found out the minimum was at least equivalent to an AA-ranked mission."

"And the expense account for this mission doesn't run nearly that high," Kakashi said. Naruto shrugged.

"There's a guy who's helping run it that owes me a favor," Naruto said. Kakashi shook his head, half in amusement, half in exasperation.

"That," Kakashi said. "Must be some favor, given the minimum buy-in."

"Yeah," Naruto said with a shrugged. "But then, he knows it's not like I'd ever lose at cards."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto had left his team to find accommodations and find out whether or not Tsunade had made it to Saijin City yet while he headed off on his own to call in that favor.

He threaded his way through the back alleys like a native, heading towards a small tea house very few outsiders even knew existed.

"Morning, Neechan," he said to the girl who answered the door. "Is Hiriko-nee available?"

"Of course, honorable sir," she said, bowing him into the establishment and leading him to a table. "One moment please."

He sat at the low table, polished to a high glossy gleam. The place was small, and had only four tables, with orchids delicately placed into ikebana arrangements spread out through the room. As he waited, a small water feature caught his eye, holding his attention as the hollowed out length of bamboo filled with water, tipped and emptied, then shot back upright, causing a soft cracking sound. Then it started filling all over again.

When Hiriko entered, she looked surprised to see him. The expression was quickly smoothed over as she joined him at the table and motioned for the tea to be brought.

"Naruto-kun, is that you?" she asked. "I thought you were getting out of the business to be a shinobi?"

"I did." Naruto shrugged. "Or I tried, anyway. Seems that life doesn't let you make clean cuts, though. I'm looking for Ichi."

"My husband's at the Hajimeto Hotel, getting everything ready for the tournament," she answered. "Is it anything I can handle without him? He's been rather besieged lately."

"I'm calling in a mark he owes me," Naruto answered. "I need a seat in the tournament, and I need him to front me the stake."

Hiriko just stared.

"I will, of course, pay back the stake ryou for ryou with my winnings," Naruto explained.

"I see," Hiriko said, recovering. "I believe this will be acceptable to my husband. Come to the Hajimeto Casino tomorrow and he shall have a seat held for you." Naruto nodded.

"Thank you, Hiriko-nee," Naruto said. "Also, could you pass along that I may have another piece of business to discuss with him at the end of the tournament? It should be profitable venture for him, getting rid of some bad loans."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi had been skeptical that Naruto had actually gotten what he'd set out for. He had, of course, followed the boy, and all he'd seen was him being served tea at a tea house, then go around the town making some clothing purchases.

But the next morning, he and Sasuke and Sakura had watched Naruto change into the rich looking civilian clothes and confidently stride into the Hajimeto Casino, where he was greeted like an old friend and ushered quickly inside.

"Do you ever get the feeling that Naruto hides more than he tells us?" Sasuke asked, eyes narrowed in thought and a frown forming on his face.

"Yes." "Yes." Sakura and Kakashi immediately agreed with him.

Then a dark haired woman with a slight build exited the casino and caught Kakashi's eye. _Shizune_, he recognized.

"Watch the entrance," he ordered his two remaining students. "I'll be back."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Tsunade didn't know what to make of the strange luck she was having. She wasn't doing horribly, but she wasn't doing exceptionally well either. Instead, she was somewhere in the middle, progressing through the tournament by the skin of her teeth.

This was distressing to her for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that she used her luck as a sort of barometer of things to come—the better luck she had, the more likely something bad was coming her way, and vice versa. So this odd middle ground made her unsure of what to expect.

Then she sat down at the table with her next match-up, not bothering to even look up as she anteed and waited for her opponent to do the same.

"Senju Tsunade, isn't it?" her opponent asked as the cards were dealt. "A pleasure to meet you."

She looked up from the table to eye the twerp, and had to stop herself from sucking in a breath. The kid looked almost exactly like Minato had when he was still a little brat trailing around after Jiraiya. She shoved her chair back.

"If you leave the table before we're through, you forfeit, you know," the kid said mildly.

"Did Sarutobi send you?" she asked, eyes narrowed. But he only smiled and placed his bet.

"Ma'am?" the dealer eventually had to prompt her. "Do you plan to forfeit?"

"No," she said, looking at her cards and putting some chips up to start the betting.

"So did the old man send you here after me?" Tsunade asked again.

"Konoha must be very different now than it was when you were there, if you believe it can fund an expense account that could cover entry into this tournament," he said.

"You are from Konoha, though," Tsunade said. He nodded.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he introduced himself, sweeping the chips from the pot into his pile. She frowned, both at the name and the loss.

"Uzumaki?" she asked, surprised. Tsunade had been sure he was Minato's kid.

"I believe we have a mutual acquaintance," Naruto said, studying her intently as the dealer started off another hand. "I've recently made some acquisitions from him you may be interested in. Do you recall a man named Jin from your time in Konoha?"

Tsunade froze and stared at the boy, wondering how in the world a kid so young could get mixed up with the Yakuza.

"I may know such a man," she said noncommittally. "But I know many men. Why might any business between the two of you interest me?"

The dealer motioned for her to either match the kid's bet or fold. She shoved the chips out on the table.

"Ah, I suppose it might not," Naruto said, shrugging. "I simply thought you might be interested in knowing who held your debt."

Tsunade dropped her cards. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Lucky they fell facedown," Naruto said. "Face up and you would have folded."

"So you're not a ninja," Tsunade said, growling at him. "Just one of his…"

"Oh, no, I'm definitely a shinobi," Naruto corrected her, watching the dealer as he dealt the Turn.

"Then why…"

"I have a teammate who's interested in medical ninjutsu," Naruto answered.

"I'm not going back to Konoha," Tsunade warned. Then she cursed as Naruto won again. He left a few chips on the table as ante and she tossed a few out for her own.

"Luckily you won't have to to meet with her," Naruto said.

"You're here with your team?" she asked. "Then Sarutobi did send you."

"Of course," Naruto agreed. "I have a message he wanted delivered. But that doesn't mean I don't have other business with you."

"I'm not taking on another apprentice," she warned.

"I'm not asking you to," Naruto said. "I'm asking you to meet with her."

"Why should I?" she asked. "What's in it for me?"

He gave her a look halfway between amusement and pity. Tsunade narrowed her eyes as the dealer laid out the Turn and she folded, having absolutely nothing.

"You don't seem to understand your situation here," Naruto said.

"Oh? What situation is that?"

"You've been very careful over the years to only borrow money from… shall we say… less than reputable sources," Naruto said. "Given your status and theirs, there was no recourse for them when you skipped out on them."

She narrowed her eyes.

"I am a Shinobi of Konoha," Naruto continued. "So the rules you're used to playing by? They don't apply anymore. And if you're smart, you'll want to keep me happy. Which means indulging me by talking to my teammate about being a medical nin."

Tsunade's mind raced ahead to a hundred different possibilities and outcomes, then nodded.

"I'll talk to the girl," she said. "But no way in hell am I coming back to Konoha. And I'm not taking whatever message you have from the old man."

"Hmm, well, we'll see, I suppose," Naruto said with a shrug as they were dealt another hand. "Why don't we make a little side wager? In addition to this." He gestured to the chips, not even looking at the cards he was dealt.

"What kind of wager?" she asked, hiding the fact that she was very pleased with her cards. A pair of nines in the hole was a better start than she'd had so far.

"I win, you take the message," Naruto said, laying it on the table along with a good number of chips. "You win, I don't try to give you the message again."

"And you cancel my debt," she said, matching his chips and raising them. He laughed.

"Are you kidding me?" he said. "No way is one C-rank mission worth cancelling your debt. Give me a little credit here."

The dealer burned a card and dealt the flop, laying out the three community cards face up on the table. Tsunade refrained from smiling when she saw it had another nine. Which meant at least three of a kind. And the brat still hadn't looked at his cards. She raised the betting.

"Well," she mused. "What would it take for you to put that on the table?"

"You'd have to offer something of equal value," he said, matching her chips and motioning the dealer to lay out the Turn—an ace. "I'd consider anteing the debt I purchased from Jin in exchange for, say, you anteing your coming back to Konoha and establishing and running a medical school. Full time."

Tsunade's eyes widened. Then she looked from her cards to Naruto—who still hadn't even looked at his cards yet—and back again. She blew out a breath. There was no way she could lose. Three of a kind and two more cards to be dealt? It was a sure thing.

The dealer burned a card then set out the River. It was another ace. She smiled. Full house.

"Done," Tsunade said, pushing all of her chips over the green felt covering the table into the bet. "All in."

"All in," Naruto agreed, pushing his own chips in.

"Full house," Tsunade said, showing the cards in her hand. "Aces over nines."

She reached out to take the chips, but Naruto's hand stopped her. Then he turned over his cards, one by one.

When she saw the first ace, she began to sweat. With the two on the table, that meant three of a kind. Which, she reminded herself, wasn't enough to beat a full house. Then he turned over his second card, and she stared in disbelief. Another ace.

"Four of a kind, Uzumaki-san wins," the dealer declared, pushing the chips over to Naruto. He smiled and handed Tsunade the message tube from the Third.

"I'll expect you back in Konoha by the end of the week," he said.

She began cursing, but Naruto just waited her out.

"I'm not going back you little twerp," she snarled. "I don't care what our wager was, I refuse."

"Tsunade," Naruto said, face looking like it was carved out of stone. "I told you, I don't play by the rules you're used to, so stop acting like a spoiled child. Jin and the others you've dealt with may have had to take what you're willing to give, but I don't."

"Like a pathetic little genin like you could do anything," she said.

"Ah, but as a genin, I have the right to bring my grievances to the Hokage," Naruto countered.

"He wouldn't do anything," Tsunade said. "Not to me."

"Perhaps not for me," Naruto allowed. "But if he were to ignore me, I would have cause to appeal to the Fire Lord. And if I were to then sell your debt to the Fire Lord …"

He trailed off, and Tsunade's eyes went wide as she stared at him. The Fire Lord had been trying to get her to come to his Court for years to be his healer. And if he held her debt… he could make the Hokage send out his shinobi to force her to his Court, where she would have to serve until her debt was paid off.

"You see how it would be better for everyone if you just do as you've agreed?"

"You didn't even look at your cards," she protested. "There's no way you should've won."

"Perhaps. But then, I only lose at cards when I want to," Naruto said with a shrug. "Now, you'll be in Konoha by the end of the week?"

She scowled again but nodded and took the scroll, reading through it. The old man wanted her to go back to Konoha anyway, so at least it would kill two birds with one stone. And besides, the brat had never stipulated how long she needed to stay. A few weeks, maybe a month or two, tops, and she'd be out of there.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi had all the faith in the world that Naruto would do exactly as he'd said he would, and find and deliver the scroll to Tsunade. But he hadn't survived so long as a shinobi without always having a Plan B. And a Plan C. And usually even a Plan F.

So when Kakashi saw the girl he remembered as Tsunade's apprentice, he followed her, being none too careful about not being seen. And when she finally spotted him and used a shunshin to appear behind him, Kakashi let her think she'd gotten the drop on him.

"What do you want?" she demanded, touching a kunai to his neck.

"Maa, maa, is that any way to greet a fellow Konoha nin?" he asked cordially.

"What do you want?" she asked again. He felt the kunai pressing closer to his throat.

"That isn't very nice, Shizune-san," he said with a pout. "I'm not here to give you any trouble." But the kunai only pressed closer, and he decided he'd played the affable idiot long enough. Within the blink of an eye, Shizune was disarmed and pressed against him chest-to-chest, wrists behind her back and held tightly together in one of his hands as the other wrapped around her waist to keep her from moving.

Her eyes widened as she tilted her head back to look up at him.

"What do you want?" she asked again.

"Just to talk," Kakashi said easily. "If I let you go, will you run? Or try to poke at me with sharp objects again?"

She tried to pull away, but Kakashi only tightened his grip and she winced. Shizune sighed and relented.

"Alright."

"Good." Kakashi smiled and took a step back. "How about we talk over tea?" He pointed to a nearby tea house.

She nodded and followed, restraining the urge to stick senbon in him as his back was turned.

"You're here from the Hokage?" she asked after the tea was served.

"Aa," Kakashi agreed. "My name is…"

"Hatake Kakashi," she interrupted. "I know who you are, Hatake-san."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow as he fiddled with his teacup.

"Are we being recalled?" Shizune asked. Kakashi couldn't help but hear the faint hope in her voice. And the far more obvious concern.

"I believe so," Kakashi said. "But I wasn't privy to the message before Hokage-sama sealed it."

Shizune sighed.

"Even if it is, I doubt Tsunade-sama will agree to go back," she said.

"Not even at the order of the Hokage?" Kakashi asked, surprised.

"Hokage-sama is… very lenient with Tsunade-sama," Shizune said. "He'd have worded it so as to give her the choice."

"But you want to go back," Kakashi surmised. "Why don't you? You can come back with my team even if Tsunade-sama doesn't."

"I can't." Shizune shook her head. "Tsunade-sama is not well, and I couldn't leave her alone."

"I'm sure you could convince her to go back, even if it was just for a short while."

"No, she wouldn't take my words to heart," Shizune said. "I'm not nearly persuasive or important enough."

"Oh? I think you don't give yourself enough credit. If I'm any judge, you have more sway than you think."

"If I have any sway at all, it's only because I never ask her to do a thing she truly doesn't want to. Would you have had any luck in moving the Fourth from a path he'd chosen?"

Kakashi frowned and finished his tea as a server blocked his face.

"Let's go find my kids, I'm sure they're wreaking havoc by now."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sakura and Sasuke had begun their watch carefully hidden, determined to keep from being found. After a while, though, they began to wonder at the point. And with neither Kakashi nor Naruto nor their target anywhere in sight, they were incredibly bored as well.

"Want to do the rest of the watch from that tea house?" Sasuke finally asked, pointing to one directly across from the entrance they'd been assigned to watch.

"Oh, Kami-sama, yes."

They spent the afternoon grazing on snacks at the teahouse, until Tsunade stormed out of the casino. Sasuke and Sakura came instantly alert and watchful. This turned out to be not to their benefit, as it drew her attention and she spotted them immediately. She wasn't legendary for nothing, after all. She narrowed her eyes and began to head right to them.

"Oh, shit," Sasuke muttered.

"You two." She pointed right at them. "You here with that blonde brat?"

"Er, you mean Naruto?" Sakura asked. Sasuke kicked her under the table, and she glared back at him.

"I thought so." Tsunade flopped down next to Sasuke. "Kid won all my money off me, so you two are buying me a drink."

"Er, but…"

"Sake!" Tsunade yelled the order to the waitress. Who was across the room. Sasuke and Sakura looked to each other, then shrugged.

"So," Tsunade said as she poured herself a saucer of sake. "Which one of you brats is interested in medical jutsu?"

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto was sitting in the Casino's high-rollers bank room waiting for his chips to be cashed out when Ichi walked into the room and spotted him.

"Naruto," Ichi greeted him. "Good to see you again." Ichi was Saijin City's equivalent to Konoha's Jin. That is, they dealt with all the money.

"My wife told me you had business to discuss?" Ichi asked after the pleasantries were exchanged.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "First off, these are yours." He pushed a relatively small stack of chips over the table towards him. "To repay the stake you lent me."

"Ah, very good," Ichi nodded. "You've always been good for it, Naruto. Unlike certain other players I've lent money to." He looked at the huge pile of chips Naruto still had and sighed.

"Mm." Naruto nodded. "That leads to our second piece of business. I understand Senju Tsunade owes you quite a bit."

"Probably three or four times what she owed Jin," Ichi acknowledged.

"Ah, so you heard about that?" Naruto asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Of course." Ichi nodded. "It's a small community. I assume you want to buy it?"

"I'll give you the same rate I gave Jin," Naruto nodded. "And you can pass the word I'll give that rate to any of her debtors for as long as I'm buying her debt."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So tell me," Tsunade said. "What do you know about this Uzumaki brat?"

"You could always ask me yourself," Naruto said as he swung into the seat next to Sakura.

"I already talked to your girl about medical jutsu," Tsunade told him defensively.

"And?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"She may be acceptable," Tsunade dismissed.

"Well, you'll have a while to find out, I imagine." Naruto shrugged.

"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked suspiciously.

"Ten, twelve years at least. Don't you think?"

"Twelve years!" Tsunade sputtered. Sasuke and Sakura just looked on in confusion.

"Mmm. I don't think you could truly establish a medical education program in a day less, do you?"

She narrowed her eyes and sighed.

"No. I suppose not," she said through clenched teeth.

"Ah, so you're coming back to Konoha after all?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"Unfortunately," she grumbled under her breath.

"Which is great, because I had an interesting conversation with Ichi after you left, Tsunade," Naruto said, waving to the waitress for her to bring them something to eat.

"…Ichi?" Tsunade said, dreading what Naruto might say.

"Mm, he had something full of interest for me," Naruto replied. Tsunade slumped; the twerp had bought that debt, too.

"How much did you win that you could buy off Ichi?" Tsunade asked.

Naruto shrugged.

"Enough." Naruto dug into his dango. Sasuke and Sakura just continued to look confused until Kakashi found them.

"My, what amazing watchers you are," Kakashi said.

"Hey, we're here, our subject's here, and we're watching her," Sakura defended herself. "What more do you want?"

Kakashi sighed. Shizune looked on in wide-eyed amazement.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So," Tsunade slurred, well into her cups. "You brats gonna escort me back to Konoha?"

"If you request it, we can, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi answered, slouching his long frame back against the booth with his arms stretched across the back of it. "But our mission isn't over yet."

"Whaddya mean?" she demanded. "Ya got me to come back to that damn village. What else could ya have to do? Unless… don't tell me. You're after that Jiraiya, too, aren't ya?" She began to laugh as Kakashi nodded.

"Ne, ne, you don't know where the old man is, do you Baachan?" Naruto asked. Tsunade, Naruto shortly found, packed an enormous punch even while drunk.

"Don't call me that, you twerp," she demanded.

"Naruto, what are you saying?" Kakashi asked dramatically. "You mean that you don't have some incredibly esoteric tracking device on him? You don't know a guy who knows a guy who knows his secret traveling companion?"

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Aw, come on now, Taichou-chan, you're letting us down here," Kakashi teased. Naruto decided his sensei must have managed more sake than he'd thought.

"What will we ever do without your guidance, Taichou?" Sakura asked, voice high as she batted her eyes at him. Naruto glared at them all and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Shizune watched the whole thing in amusement.

"Don't pout," Sasuke said, and Naruto hoped the teasing was over. "You can't blame us for being surprised, Taichou."

Naruto groaned and laid his head on the table.

"Wait, you need to know where Jiraiya is?" Tsunade suddenly asked with a gleam in her eye. "Well, lucky for you, I happen to know where he'll be in a few days. And if I have to go back to the village, he sure as hell's coming with me."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo


	4. Chapter 4

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin **

**Chapter Four**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sasuke had known since the first seal he'd seen Naruto draw that there was more to his idiot teammate than most people would ever look for. Of course, producing a seal that could disable a Jounin was a rather large slap in the face, practically forcing him to look for more than the class clown, dead last loser he'd always seen before that. After the bell test, though, Sasuke had thought he'd had his eyes fully opened about Naruto.

And then he'd been slapped in the face again. This time, by his teammate's strange past and the connections that stemmed from it, which had let him lead them straight to one of Konoha's most famous ninja.

He'd thought they were close enough that there were no big secrets between them. Apparently, he'd thought wrong. But then, he'd never really asked, either.

So when they'd stopped for the night and Kakashi-sensei set them to sparring, Sasuke had been only too eager.

"Aw, shit, you're a vicious bastard, you know that?" Naruto asked as he turned his head to the side and spit out a mouthful of blood. Sasuke just smirked and began another sequence that had Naruto scrambling to get out of the way. A foot planted in his torso helped those efforts immensely. Though, Sasuke supposed as Naruto flew into a tree with a sharp exhalation of breath, it was likely not quite how Naruto would have preferred.

Then again, in a straight taijutsu match, Naruto should know not to expect much better.

In a less regulated spar where it was anything goes, they were much more evenly matched—the bruises that were currently running all down the left side of his torso could certainly attest to that. But it wasn't a less regulated spar, and so they weren't even matched at all.

Naruto groaned, but got up and came again. Sasuke grinned. In taijutsu, he dominated. And as an added bonus, head trauma sometimes loosened lips better than anything else.

Because Sasuke had questions for his teammate—about what his secrets were, and why he was keeping them—but he could be patient. He could wait for Naruto to come to him. Of course, that didn't mean he couldn't also work off some of his frustrations at having to be patient at the same time.

Then Sasuke realized that he'd let his mind wander a hair too long and that Naruto had maneuvered him into a disadvantageous position where he was forced to sacrifice a blow to his ribs to protect his jaw.

He was about to retaliate when Kakashi called the spar.

"Maa, maa, I think that's enough for the night," he said. "We still have a ways to go to get to Hifu in the morning still, ne?"

They nodded and began their cool down exercises.

"Any injuries I can practice on?" Sakura asked eagerly. Sasuke sighed. On the one hand, it was great that he had a teammate who was developing medical skills, as it meant easy access to medical jutsu. On the other hand, it was somewhat terrifying to be a novice medical nin's test subject. And since she'd met Tsunade-sama, Sakura had wanted to test everything she'd ever learned or read about.

"Mou, Sakura-chan," Naruto said with a pout. "It's almost like you want us to get hurt now."

Sakura promptly smacked him. Sasuke promptly edged away from them, hoping to be long gone before Sakura thought to try healing him. Because he wasn't sure Naruto wasn't right.

"See, see?" he demanded, holding his head dramatically. "I bet you did that just so you could fix it, didn't you?"

Sakura rolled her eyes even as her hand became enveloped in green healing chakra.

"Just get over here so I can see what marks Sasuke left on you," she ordered. She began to slowly run her hand over Naruto's torso, then frowned.

"How can this be?" she asked. "You don't have any injuries at all."

Naruto ducked back so her hand fell off him and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as he laughed.

"Well, you know, I've always healed fast," he said, trying to minimize it. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, wondering what it was that Naruto was trying to play off about this whole thing. Wondering if it was yet _another_ secret he was keeping from his teammates.

"That's all, that's all, ne? Now you better fix Sasuke quick or he might not be enough of a pretty boy for you anymore."

Sasuke glared at him. Not for the pretty boy comment (though Naruto could be ridiculously annoying when he wanted), but because he'd managed to divert Sakura's attentions to him. In theory, he had full faith and confidence in Sakura and had no problem with her practicing medical jutsu. In practice, he found he vastly preferred his iryounin to be fully certified and in a hospital. And he'd discovered a strange phobia of his 12 year old teammate trying out things she'd only read about in books on him.

"Shirt off, Sasuke," she ordered. He sighed but did as she said without complaint. The things he did for his team.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So, this is Hifu?" Sasuke asked.

"It's… big," Sakura said.

Kakashi nodded, watching all of their wide eyes look around the city. He'd been to Hifu a handful of times for various missions, and he understood the reaction. From where they stood at the top of a hill, they could see into the bustling downtown where a ridiculous number of vibrantly painted buildings almost as tall as the Hokage Monument were all squeezed together as they lined streets teeming with masses of people and vendors and horses and carts, all yelling and singing and bartering and talking in a mad cacophony of sound.

Needless to say, Naruto appeared to love it.

It was one of the richest cities in Fire Country, being the main port used for ships arriving from Water Country, and the Eastern Continent beyond. All of the foreign trade had led to a number of foreigners immigrating there, which had in turn led to the city becoming the pulsating, dazzling melting pot of a city. According to Tsunade, it was also where Jiraiya was.

Now all they had to do was find him. In a massive city. When he was supposed to be on a ship to Water Country in just a few days time. The Hokage had given them plenty of leeway in this mission, but following Jiraiya to Water country was a bit beyond his mandate.

He motioned for them to follow him and to stay close as he led them through the swarming crowds as they made their way to the docks. And, it turned out, they were in luck as it seemed they managed to hit it during the slight lull that occurred whenever there wasn't a ship about to berth or set sail.

"You three wait out here," Kakashi said when they found the Dock Master's office, thinking he'd have better luck in there on his own. "Make sure not to wander off. I'll be back in a few minutes." When they nodded, still a bit wide-eyed, he headed inside. Most Dock Masters required copies of all passenger logs for ships that came into the country under their watch, and Kakashi was sure this Dock Master wouldn't be any different.

It took a bit of convincing and a minor genjutsu to persuade them to let him see the records he wanted, but Kakashi got his way in the end. And found that Jiraiya had come in the night before, which was a relief as he'd been slightly worried Tsunade had sent them on a wild goose chase out of spite. He didn't find record of Jiraiya being listed on an outgoing passage, though, so Kakashi had to assume he either hadn't purchased it yet or had done so under a different name.

He considered both possibilities as he went back outside to meet his team.

"Find anything?" Sakura asked.

"About what I was expecting," Kakashi replied with a shrug. "So, you three come up with any ideas on how to find Jiraiya?"

"Er, sensei, if he's here, you know he'll be in the Akasen, right?" Naruto asked.

"Mm, but do you know where Hifu's red light district is?" Kakashi asked. Naruto shook his head. "Me, either. So I repeat myself. Any ideas?"

"Er… we could spread out and look for it," Sakura offered.

"With you two, that's just asking for trouble, I think," Naruto said, looking them up and down.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura asked defensively as Sasuke frowned at him.

"Means you're both too pretty for your own good," Naruto said. "Or mine. If we split up, I'd spend the whole time terrified one of you would somehow accidentally manage to sell yourself."

"Aw, don't you think I'm pretty, Naruto-kun?" Kakashi teased, batting his visible eye.

Naruto grunted. "You're too old for the skin trade. And if you couldn't keep the local yakuza from buying you, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be a Jounin in the first place."

"Accidentally… sell… ourselves?" Sasuke asked incredulously, unable to get passed that.

"Mm," Naruto agreed. "For a night if you were lucky, forever if you weren't."

"So, I vote for not splitting up," Sakura said firmly.

"I think we should go wait at a ramen stand while my clones find an akasenko to find Jiraiya for us," Naruto suggested. "One of the kids who grew up in the red light district here will be able to find him quicker, easier, and safer than we could splitting up."

"Sakura and I aren't helpless, you know." Sasuke scowled. "We're shinobi too." Naruto just shrugged.

"Yeah, but you're also a pretty-boy virgin who's never dealt with yaks," Naruto said.

"And you're not?" Sasuke retorted. Naruto blinked.

"Well, no," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. It did nothing to calm Sasuke down. Or satisfy the rampant curiosity about the things Naruto left unsaid. _Patience_, he reminded himself. Naruto would share his secrets when he was ready. Sasuke just had to be patient.

"How much do you know about the skin trade, Naruto," Kakashi asked cautiously, worried not only about Naruto's answer, but also how he came to have that knowledge.

"Enough," Naruto replied with a shrug.

"What's the skin trade?" Sakura asked. Naruto and Kakashi both looked at her. "And what's a yak?"

Naruto noted Sasuke was paying close attention, too.

"And you want them to go into the Akasen to find someone," Naruto said with a sigh, running his hand through his hair.

"We're perfectly capable…"

"Not in the Akasen you aren't," Naruto said. Sasuke looked furious.

"Stop babying us," he demanded. "We're just as capable as you are."

"They are genin. I think you're overstating it a little bit there, Naruto," Kakashi interjected as Sasuke gave Naruto a dark look.

"Maybe, but I don't think so," Naruto said, shaking his head. "And even if we are all shinobi, you're the only one of us who looks like it, Sensei. It would be… very troublesome to have to dissuade the locals they were wrong if they got it into their head they wanted to add to their stables."

"Hmm," Kakashi said consideringly, rubbing his chin. He didn't like how much Naruto seemed to know about these things. It made him very concerned over the hows and whys of his acquiring it. But his concern seemed genuine, and Kakashi was never one to take concerns lightly. Even if he was pretty sure Naruto was over-reacting.

"Look, can we at least try it my way?" Naruto asked.

"Do you think an akasenko would really be able to locate Jiraiya?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes," Naruto said, in a way so certain Kakashi had no choice but to believe him.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It didn't take them long to find something to eat as they waited. Unfortunately for Naruto, it wasn't at a ramen stand. This did not phase Sasuke in the least, as he much preferred the yakitori they'd ordered. He did find it rather regrettable that they'd bought the sticks at a street vendor, which meant that they were meandering through some of the less populated parts of the city now instead of sitting somewhere Sasuke could carefully angle himself to watch Naruto without looking like he was watching him. Managing to guilt Kakashi into paying for them all completely made up for it.

"So how will you find one of those children anyway?" Sakura asked, inadvertently stumbling upon one of the topics Sasuke so desperately wanted answered.

"Eh?" Naruto asked, rubbing the back of his head. Sasuke tilted his head so it would appear he was looking up at the laundry lines that spanned across the width of the street from window to window all up and down the buildings. About half of them were covered with all sorts of drying laundry in every shade of the rainbow. It was certainly different enough to deserve a glance under normal circumstances, but he was much more interested in using it as an excuse to watch Naruto as he answered Sakura's question.

"What did you call them again?" she asked. "Akasenko? Those are kids who were born in the red light district, right?"

"Um, yeah," he said. "Well, you know, on our way to the docks, we passed at least half a dozen boys running games. I'd be surprised if even one of them wasn't an Akasenko. They aren't really that hard to find, it's just that nobody really wants to see them."

Naruto was clearly uncomfortable. Oh, he was trying to hide it, of course, and was actually doing it very well. But he couldn't hide it from Sasuke, who was watching far too closely and knew his teammate far too well to be fooled.

"I don't understand," Sakura said, cocking her head to the side. Sasuke took the opportunity to throw away the wooden stick, then paused in confusion as he saw the trash can was shaped like a fox and painted a blindingly fluorescent pink. He quickly turned away before it blinded him, and caught sight of Kakashi eyeing Naruto over his ever present book.

"They're just kids," Sakura continued. "Why wouldn't anybody want to see them?"

"Well, you know what goes on beyond the red line, right?" Naruto asked.

Sakura flushed a deep red.

"Baka," she scoffed, hitting his arm to hide her embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, sometimes, the men who visit aren't as careful as they should be, and sometimes those actions have consequences," Naruto said, looking anywhere but his teammates. "But the men who visit don't like to know about it, and nobody else wants to think about it at all. Sowhen the consequences happen to be boys, when they get old enough they sometimes learn how to pick a pocket clean, or how to run a dice game, or run a con, or any one of a hundred ways to fleece a mark."

'_You told us that _you _ran games, once upon a time,' _Sasuke wanted to say but didn't. Little bits and pieces of things Naruto had done and said were all shoving their way to the fore of Sasuke's mind as he bit his cheek, taking it all in as he considered everything and wondered whether he were beginning to understand.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto hadn't missed how Sasuke had been watching him when he thought he wasn't looking. Though, honestly, Naruto wasn't sure why Sasuke was so carefully considering him. He wasn't any different now than he was in Kimato or Saijin City.

Then he considered the fact that Sasuke was from a noble clan, and was rightfully considered to be a genius. And though he hadn't advertised it, neither had Naruto been overly cautious about hiding his origins. And for the first time in a long while, he wondered whether he'd be shunned for them again. Because high born geniuses weren't exactly known for associating with kids who'd fought their way out of the gutters.

The whole thing was very disconcerting. When one of his clones dispelled after getting the info on Jiraiya, Naruto found himself inordinately glad for the distraction.

"Success," he said. "Jiraiya's location isn't far from here."

"That was really fast," Sakura said. "How'd the kid find Jiraiya-sama so quickly?" Naruto shrugged.

"The Akasenko—the children of the red light district?—they know more about what's going on than most anybody gives them credit," he said. "And Jiraiya isn't exactly inconspicuous."

"Good, Naruto," Kakashi said, putting his book away now that it was time for work. "Show us the way."

"Er, are you sure?" Naruto asked, rubbing the back of his head. "After all of that, you're going to let them go into the Akasen anyway?"

"They'll have to learn about it sooner or later," Kakashi said with a shrug.

"Aren't you even going to tell them what to expect?" Naruto protested.

"Hey, we're not some little kids that need to be sheltered, Naruto," Sasuke pointed out.

"No, you're not," Naruto agreed. "But you are twelve year olds who have never been in a whore house before." Sasuke pursed his lips, unable to argue with that. It was true. That it wasn't true for Naruto… _Patience_, Sasuke reminded himself. Then he decided that patience really wasn't his thing and that it was time for him to push a bit.

"You're only twelve, too. How is it you _have_ been in a whore house," Sasuke asked. "How is it you know so much about the Akasen? And the Yakuza?"

Naruto froze, eyes widened in shock as his mouth couldn't seem to move the right way to form words.

"Maa, I was under the impression we were in the middle of a mission just now," Kakashi interrupted lazily. Sasuke wanted to kill him. He'd been _this close _to getting his answers. "Now really isn't the time for such things. Naruto, show us the way to where Jiraiya-sama is. And all of you should watch out for pickpockets and generally be on your toes. You never know what kind of trouble you might run into once you pass the red line. Understand?"

Sasuke wasn't sure he did—he'd never been in the Red Light District before, so he wasn't sure he could—but he nodded anyway. Sakura nodded, too, then frowned and tugged on Kakashi's vest.

"Ano, Kaka-sensei, will you make sure I don't accidentally sell myself?"

He grinned. "Would I let something like that happen to one of my cute students?"

Sakura frowned and scrunched her nose a bit, then turned to Naruto.

"Naruto, will you make sure I don't accidentally sell myself?"

Kakashi pouted.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto threaded his way through the streets of Hifu's Akasen like a native, avoiding the thieves and drunks and other dangers with the ease that only came with long practice. He deftly navigated his team to a small detour when he saw a small gang of local yaks set up to demand 'taxes' and did the same when he saw a group of young boys he was sure were pickpockets all running interference for each other.

When they were only fifty or so meters from their destination, Naruto couldn't detour anymore, even when he saw a boy make a clean pull of some john's wallet. Even when he saw the boy's eyes light up at the sight of them, and come their way. So instead, when the boy brushed passed them, Naruto watched the play and grabbed him.

"Hey, what're ya doing?" the kid protested, shaggy hair falling across his smudged face. "Leave off. I didn't do nothing to yas."

"Sure ya didn't," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. The kid was probably only eight, with dark blue pants that were far too baggy on him and a shirt that might have started out white, but had seen better and cleaner days.

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked. In response, Naruto plucked two wallets from the kid's baggy pants and threw them to Sasuke and Sakura. They both blinked, then felt the rest of their pockets for anything else that might have been stolen.

"Don't know how those got there, Mister," the kid said suddenly perfectly polite though still trying his best to squirm out of the iron grip Naruto had on his wrist.

"Of course you don't," Naruto said. He lifted three scrolls and a comb off the kid before shaking his head.

"Really? A comb?" Naruto asked, shaking his head. The kid hesitated, then shrugged.

"Thought it might be something else," he said. "How'd you know I did it? Didn't even try to lift anything from you."

"Kid, you may be a pickpocket, but I'm a better one. I saw you coming three marks back."

The kid looked at him, puzzled.

"Now let me give you a piece of advice. Do you see this?" he pointed to his hitai-ate. " You see anyone wearing one of these, it means they're a ninja and you want to steer clear—they're faster, stronger, and better than any mark you might ever imagine. I saw a kid try to make a lift once and get a knife through his hand before he could even stash it. You understand?"

The kid's eyes went wide and he nodded frantically, clearly terrified Naruto was going to stab him where he stood.

"Don't worry, kid. I'm not gonna do anything, I just want you to pick your marks more carefully," Naruto said, letting the kid go. He rubbed his wrist and made to dash off, then hesitated.

"Think I could be a ninja, too?" he asked, curiosity winning out over self preservation. Naruto grinned.

"Maybe, but it's harder work than anything you've ever done before."

The kid scrunched up his nose. "Nah, never mind then."

And he dashed off. Naruto turned to give the scrolls and comb back to Sasuke and Sakura, who were staring at him.

"Um, thanks?" Sakura said. Sasuke grunted.

"Mou, you used to be a pickpocket?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, it's not really something you ever stop being," Naruto said with a shrug.

"…were you any good?" Sasuke asked. Naruto grinned.

"I could pick any of your pockets clean and you'd never notice."

"Really? I am a Jounin, you know," Kakashi countered. Naruto shrugged.

"Of course the more aware a mark generally is, the more careful you have to be about it. But Jounin or no, I've never had a problem." Naruto smiled, holding up Kakashi's wallet.

Kakashi blinked, then swiped it back and put it away.

"Ok, ok, enough. Now where's this place Jiraiya is supposed to be?"

"This is it," Naruto pointed to a three story structure across the street.

Kakashi nodded and started to head for the front door.

"Tch," Naruto scoffed, grabbing his arm. "Don't you know anything? Do you see a lantern in the window? No? Me either. It's closed. Going to the front door will only attract more attention to us than we've already managed."

He had, of course, visited brothels before—both on personal time and for missions—so he knew very well that the lantern missing from the window meant it was closed. But he also knew they had to get in there, and had found over the years that knocking was often times the easiest way.

"Oh? Then what do you propose we do?" Kakashi asked, eyebrow raised.

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"We go through the back door, of course," Naruto said. He slipped down the alley and was knocking on the back door before Kakashi could stop him.

An older woman with her hair pulled back in a fashionable knot opened the door.

"Ah, honorable sir, please forgive this one but it must be said that this humble establishment is closed," she said, bowing.

"We just…" Kakashi began. Naruto cut him off.

"Are you the Mother here?" Naruto asked. The woman cocked her head to the side, then shook her head. "She's who we need to talk to." The woman paused in confusion, unsure whether or not she should let them in.

"We'll wait here for her," Naruto said.

"Thank you, honorable sir," she said. "This one shall only be a moment."

When she was gone, Naruto could feel the curious stares boring into the back of his head. He didn't dare turn around. He was certain they would figure everything out after this, and was suddenly terrified they'd no longer want him around. It had happened before, after all.

"I'm told you have business with me?" asked the woman who came to the door. Her hair had turned a steely gray, and she wore a kimono that was nice, but ultimately utilitarian in nature. Naruto could make out the knife she had hidden in the obi as well as the one in her sleeve.

"I'm not in the market for new acquisitions," she said, eying Sasuke and Sakura. "And even if I were, I don't buy virgins, much less boys or little girls. You could try Wari's establishment a few streets down."

"They're not for sale," Naruto said, even as they gaped at the idea someone might want to purchase them; he ignored Kakashi shaking his head in amusement. "And we're not here to cause you any trouble. We've been sent with a message for your guest, and would like to wait for him in one of your parlors so as not to bring any extra or undesirable attention to your establishment."

"Oh?" she said, raising an eyebrow; Naruto nodded. "Very well. This way."

She led them to an empty sitting room.

"Some of the girls may wander through. I expect you to not bother any of them, especially if they decide to practice," she said.

"I understand," Naruto said, bowing slightly and pressing a small pouch into her hand. "For the trouble." This time, both her eyebrows rose. Then she tucked it into her sleeve and bowed back.

"Thank you, honorable sir," she said. "I will send a girl in with tea for you and your companions."

As she left, there was a sudden roar of male laughter from above, followed by girlish squealing. Naruto sat on one of the plush couches and finally allowed himself to look at his team out of the corner of his eye. Sakura and Sasuke looked more uncomfortable than he'd ever seen them. He opened his mouth to say something to take their minds off of where they were, then abruptly shut it with an audible click, afraid anything he might say would wind up working against him.

"You're very comfortable here, Naruto," Kakashi mused, eyeing him and thinking of how easily he'd dealt with the Akasen as a whole. "I'd almost think you'd spent time in a similar establishment before."

Naruto gave him a crooked look, seeing how attentively Sakura and Sasuke were to their conversation at the moment, and shrugged. They were going to figure it out sooner or later, he supposed. So he was damned if he did, and damned if he didn't. And Naruto always preferred to be damned for action.

"I have spent a lot of time in similar establishments before," he finally agreed. "Where do you think I grew up that I know so much about how the red light district works?"

And with that pronouncement, he looked down at the table, then took a deck of cards out of his jacket and began to shuffle them. Not that he didn't notice his teammates' reactions. And realize it was definitely the wrong thing to say. Sakura, apparently, hadn't even begun to put things together with how shocked she looked. Sasuke looked triumphant for some reason. And even Kakashi looked dismayed. Without really thinking, he began to run the cards through the various tricks he'd plied years ago, his hands still remembering the intricate moves that made the cards dance.

A girl with a tea tray entered, and the flying cards immediately caught her attention.

"This one has brought tea for the honorable sir and his companions, if it pleases," she said, eyes still caught on the cards. With a flick of his wrist, Naruto brought the cards back into a stacked deck and nodded.

"It does," he said. "You can call me Naruto."

He twisted the cards into another trick as she poured and offered the cup.

"If this one may be so bold, it appears you are quite the master of the cards," she said.

"I picked up a few things here and there," Naruto said with a shrug. "And you can cut the hostess speech; I'm not a customer."

"But Mother told me to keep you entertained?" she asked blinking and looking confused. Naruto sighed.

"You know how to play, Neechan?" he asked, gesturing to his cards. Her eyes widened and gleamed.

"I'll take that as a yes," Naruto said. "But only if you really play. Like I said, I'm not a customer."

His team watched as they played a game that seemed ridiculously intricate and fast paced. When another girl entered and saw them playing, she clapped and begged to join in. Then another few girls joined in, and the game got even faster and more intense.

"Perhaps I should have charged you the same as Jiraiya-sama, given how many of my girls you are distracting." Naruto didn't even look up from the card game as he responded.

"But Mother, it's not my fault all the Neechan wanted to play," he said innocently, even as he slapped his hand on the table, claiming a handful of cards.

"No fair!" one of the girls protested.

"Mother distracted us!"

"But Neechan, it's not my fault Mother came in," he said innocently.

"Actually it is," Mother said. "Jiraiya-sama is washing himself, and will shortly be down to meet with you."

"Finally," Naruto said, twisting his head back and forth to crack his neck. "I bet the old man took even longer than usual, just to make us wait for him."

"Serves you right," said a deep voice. Naruto and the rest of Team Seven cut their eyes to Jiraiya as he descended the steps, hair still wet from the shower and his yukata only half-tied.

"Mother, Neechan, will you excuse us," Naruto asked. The mother nodded and left as the girls quickly bowed and followed.

"What do you brats want," Jiraiya asked.

"Sandaime-sama sent us with a message," Kakashi answered as he held out the sealed scroll. Jiraiya scowled as he accepted it, slicing his thumb over it to break the seal. He read it quickly, then burned it with a small fire jutsu.

"You can tell the old man I've received and acknowledged it," he said.

"Did it ask you to come back to Konoha, like the one we gave to Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked.

"Oh? You had to try to find my old teammate, too?" Jiraiya asked, chuckling. "I'm surprised none of you have any broken bones."

"Why would we?" Sakura asked, eyes wide. "She was very nice, except when she made us buy her drinks. And she's going to teach me when we get back to Konoha."

"Good luck with that promise, girlie," Jiraiya said. "She'll never go back."

"She assured us she was," Kakashi disagreed.

"Of course she did," Jiraiya said, rolling his eyes. "I bet she's halfway across Wind by now. The only way she would go back to Konoha is by force."

"Or with blackmail and bribery," Naruto offered.

Jiraiya gave him an odd look.

"Hmm, whatever," Jiraiya said dismissively. "Now scram, brats."

"I had something else to discuss with you," Kakashi said. "Kids, wait outside."

"…We'll wait in the kitchen with the Neechan," Naruto countered.

"I'd really rather wait outside, Naruto," Sakura said softly. "I'm not comfortable in this place." Sasuke only grunted.

Naruto refrained from clenching his hands, though he didn't quite manage his jaw, and he headed out without another word. He made a brief detour through the kitchen to say goodbye to the Neechan and thank the Mother, then sat down on the back stoop, facing away from the door.

When Sakura and Sasuke followed a moment later, he was careful not to look at them, looking instead at the pair of older boys and a younger one down the street, splitting up to go their separate ways, the older two likely off to wait with a cosh in an alley somewhere for the younger to bring back their mark.

He sighed and put his head in his hands, wishing his team had never taken these stupid missions. Wishing he'd never clued them in to where he was from at all. Wishing his team still thought as well of him as they had in Kimato.

But apparently, even shinobi didn't care about how good you were when you were an Akasenko.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sakura asked. Sasuke was glad she had, though he'd never say it aloud. He did not like the bitter look on Naruto's face, and it was easier all around if Sakura asked questions like that.

"I'm fine," Naruto said, ignoring them completely as he eyed a young boy coming towards them. Which only made Sasuke annoyed. The least Naruto could do was give them his attention. Because how could he show Naruto that it was alright to share his secrets with them if he wasn't even paying them any notice?

"But you…" Sakura was cut off when the approaching boy called out to them.

"Hey, hey, Misters, Lady," he said. "Please, can you help me?"

If Sasuke hadn't been repressing his expressions for years, he would have raised an eyebrow in interest. Because Naruto wasn't reacting at all how Sasuke had thought he would. Usually Naruto was the first to offer to help anyone on anything.

"We're not interested," Naruto answered.

"Please," the boy repeated. "My little brother is hurt."

"I'm sure the Mother here wouldn't be happy to hear about you hassling folks on her steps," Naruto warned. "Now scram."

"Naruto," Sakura chastised him. "He obviously needs our help. Let him talk."

"Yes, please, I just need you to help me get him out," the kid said. "Something fell on him, and I can't lift it off him by myself. I don't know what to do."

"Where is he?" Sasuke asked, deciding to go along with it. Because Naruto obviously knew more about what was going on here than he did, and maybe playing along would make Naruto let out more of the secrets he was keeping. Maybe.

"Sasuke, he isn't…" Naruto tried.

"Thank you," the kid said. "Thank you so much. He's just back this way."

"This is one of the oldest tricks in the book," Naruto said, not getting up from his place on the step. "Get the mark to follow you to an alley where your friend is waiting with a bat. Fuck, I used to run this trap myself." He sounded disgusted, though whether it was with himself, his team, or the kid wasn't clear.

"What?" the kid asked, eyes wide. "I don't know what you're talking about, Mister. Please, I just need to help my brother."

"Kid," Naruto scoffed. "I was in your shoes once, so let me give you fair warning. One: more agile fingers than yours already tried to pick their pockets and were caught out. And two: they're shinobi. So your partners better be damn good and damn fast."

The kid froze and looked to Naruto, then to Sasuke and Sakura.

"Aw, shit," the kid muttered. Then he took off running.

Sasuke immediately turned on Naruto.

"How do you know about all of this?" Sasuke asked, hoping to finally—_finally_—get an answer out of him. A real answer. A _full_ answer, not just a fraction of one that served more as a diversion than a true response.

"Look," Naruto said, standing and facing away from him. "It doesn't matter anymore. So drop it, ok? It's not important."

"I think it is," Sasuke said casually, slouching as he sat a few steps up from where Naruto stood so they were close to eye level. "So you were a thief in addition to a pickpocket? And I already know you're a conman. And you grew up in brothels. With what you told us, you were probably an akasenko yourself. Am I right?"

Naruto kicked the house hard enough Sakura jumped. Sasuke gave her a moment of his attention, saw her hands twisting together in distress, then turned back to Naruto. Because he would have his answers now. He'd shared all that he was with them, damn it all, and the least Naruto could do was return the favor.

"Fine. Fine," Naruto said, voice bitter. He kicked the wall again before turning and facing Sasuke straight on, eyes dark and angrier than Sasuke had ever seen them. "If you want to do this? Fine. Yes, I'm a no-name orphan born in the wrong part of Konoha, way behind the red line. So yeah, I'm an Akasenko. And yeah, I grew up around people you'd never want to meet and stealing and picking pockets and staying in brothels and running numbers for the yaks. I did all manner of things nice boys and girls from good families would never even want to know about. Is that what you wanted to know, Sasuke? Are you happy now? Anything else you want to pick at me for?"

Sasuke shrugged, watching Naruto carefully as he breathed heavily.

"Don't know, are there any other secrets you've been keeping from us?"

He'd thought he was being casual and accepting about what he'd assumed was Naruto's big secret, that he was showing he didn't care about that by saying so what, anything bigger? But when Naruto flinched back then looked away, Sasuke realized that there _was_ something bigger after all.

Naruto cursed and slammed his fist against the wall, and Sasuke bit his tongue to refrain from doing the same. Because somehow, that Naruto still didn't trust him hurt more than he'd thought it would.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Well," Jiraiya said as the genin left. "Here's hoping you still have a team when you go out to meet them. I'll take a bet their pockets are lighter " He held up a saucer of sake in toast and downed it. "Now what did you want to talk to me about that you didn't want the brats to hear?"

"You know who my blonde student is," Kakashi said, getting straight to the point.

"Of course," Jiraiya agreed.

"He's something of a fuuinjutsu prodigy."

Jiraiya's only reaction was a slightly raised eyebrow. Then he poured himself another saucer of sake.

"Of course he is," Jiraiya said. "And you—knowing I'm a Seal Master—want me to take the brat as an apprentice. No go. I told Sarutobi I was through with students years ago. I don't know why he persists in sending every Jounin-sensei who gets a genin that can draw an explosive tag out to 'deliver a message' to me."

Kakashi gave him an annoyed look.

"I'm not just some rookie Jounin-sensei," Kakashi said, voice tight. Jiraiya rolled his eyes.

"No, listen to me," Kakashi insisted. "I'm not some upstart young Jounin looking for reflected praise from having you accept one of my students. I was the student of the Fourth, and I'm a genius and a legend in my own right. Hell, if the Third has his way, I'll be more than just a Jounin in the not too distant future. And I'm not some idiot who knows nothing about seals. So listen to what I'm telling you: When it comes to seals, Naruto is a genius."

Kakashi paused to emphasize his point.

"He's already exhausted all of my knowledge, and he's coming up with things I've never even heard of before, much less seen. And he designs complete, functioning seal sets in the same amount of time it would take most masters to just write them."

"Tch," Jiraiya scoffed. "I'm sure whatever it is the brat's done can't be that unique."

Kakashi would have protested, but he saw the glint of interest peeking out from the corner of the man's apathetic eye.

"Hmm, well, I suppose that might be true," Kakashi mused, rubbing his chin. "But… Well… have you heard of the Great Naruto Lagoon? In Kimato?" He was the very picture of innocence and nonchalance.

"Just recently," Jiraiya agreed cautiously.

"That's because it was just recently constructed. And what Naruto do you think it was named after? Kid created it. With seals. Using them to control and divert millions of gallons of flood water…"

Jiraiya's eyebrows flew up beneath his bangs. "You can't be serious."

"I've told you," Kakashi said. "He's far outstripped me in fuuinjutsu."

"And you want me to take him as an apprentice," Jiraiya said, mind racing through all the possible outcomes of such a thing.

"Absolutely not," Kakashi said immediately. "He's mine. Naruto and Team 7 are _mine_."

"You don't want me to take him?" Jiraiya asked, surprised by the vehemence in Kakashi's voice. "Then what did you want?"

"What I was hoping was that you'd spend a bit of time with him. Talk to him for a while, make sure he understands what he needs to do to not get himself killed or blown up while trying to come up with something new."

"Hmm," Jiraiya said consideringly. "Well, I suppose I can at least meet the brat."

Kakashi nodded, certain it wouldn't take more than that for Jiraiya to agree to more.

"Thank you. I…" he cut himself off as he felt something giving him a light shock from the inside of the pouch on his belt. He pulled out a small tube and had just pulled out the message when Jiraiya snatched it from him.

"What is this?" he demanded, trying to make out the various seals inscribed over it.

"Another invention of Naruto's," Kakashi answered, reading the message and frowning. He scribbled a note back to the Hokage as he explained what he knew. "This is just the prototype. We're doing a field test before it's introduced into more general usage. I don't understand all of the theory behind it, but from what Naruto's explained, it's connected to another tube the Hokage has, and transports messages back and forth. He came up with it on our way back from Kimato, because he was annoyed at how long the messenger hawks took."

Jiraiya's eyes went wide at the implications.

"You understand now why I want you to talk to him," Kakashi said, wrestling the messenger tube out of Jiraiya's grasp. "Unfortunately, we have to go. Next time you're in Konoha, I would appreciate you stopping by to talk to Naruto."

He headed out the back to find his team, leaving a slightly dazed Jiraiya sitting in his robe. He cursed the timing; if this had happened a day later, he'd have had Jiraiya hooked. But emergencies were the life of a shinobi, he supposed.

"Ok, kids, we have to…" He stopped, noticing Sasuke and Sakura were cutting Naruto annoyed glares as the blonde sat with his back turned to them. This was not normal. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to deal with it just then.

"We've just gotten an urgent message from the Hokage," Kakashi said. "So whatever's going on, we need it canned until we're through. Understood?"

"Yes, Sensei," Sakura said abashed. Sasuke just grunted, and Naruto turned back to Kakashi in interest.

"The message tube worked this far away?" Naruto asked. "Was there any time differential? Was there any lag? What about the message, was there any damage to it? And what about…"

Naruto trailed off, noticing Kakashi's sheepish look.

"You forgot to note the time, didn't you?" Naruto asked.

"Er, well, that is… It was only a minute ago, so…"

"And did the Hokage mark the time?"

Kakashi was rarely more grateful that he'd been memorizing orders from top to bottom for years.

"Hmm, so time delay is negligible then," Naruto muttered. "Of course, I'll have to do it with more reliable test subjects." He glared at Kakashi.

"For now, it'll have to be enough to know that it works at a distance," Kakashi said. "We have an urgent mission from the Hokage. A genin team was sent on a C-rank mission to Wave, but Hokage-sama just got additional intel that re-classes it to an A-rank. We're only an hour away, so we're being sent to stop them and bring them back to Konoha."

"Ah, good, you're still here," came Jiraiya's voice from behind him. "I think I'll be coming with you for this."

"Oh?" Kakashi asked, eyebrow raised.

"Mmm. I'm not done looking at that tube yet," he said, extending his hand for it. "And I believe I still need to speak to the brat."

"…Right," Kakashi agreed. "Let's go."


	5. Chapter 5

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin **

**Chapter Five**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto glanced at Jiraiya out of the corner of his eye, impressed despite himself that the man was able to examine the tube even as he easily kept up with them on their mad dash to Wave Country.

"Well?" the man asked him.

"Well what," Naruto replied, confused.

"You tell me," Jiraiya said; Naruto just blinked and cocked his head to the side. "You keep looking at me like I'm about to make off with this thing."

"…Are you?" Naruto asked, having learned early on in life it was better never to take anything for granted.

"Baka," Sakura scoffed. "Jiraiya-sama is one of the Sannin of the Leaf. He isn't just going to steal something from a fellow Leaf nin."

"Hush now," Kakashi ordered. "We're almost there."

Naruto clamped his mouth shut and looked firmly ahead. Kakashi had told them to put it away for the duration of the mission, and he was determined not to go against that directive. No matter how much it bothered him that Sasuke hadn't spoken a single word to him since leaving Hifu. Since finding out he was from the red light district.

And Naruto wasn't going to be forcing the issue. He'd never thought of himself as particularly timid, but Naruto was fast discovering an annoyingly diffident side of himself. But then, he considered, he'd never had people whose opinions he cared so much about. And he was more than a little afraid of Sasuke and Sakura rejecting him because he was an akasenko. The rest of Konoha had, after all.

They stopped just before reaching the main road where the forest was abruptly divided. After the long stretch in the shade-filled dense woods, the direct sunlight beat down on the road brightly enough to hurt the eyes and potentially give them sun spots blinding their vision. Impaired vision had downed greater shinobi then them, so Kakashi motioned for them to wait in the shade as he bit his thumb before running through a long series of hand seals before slapping his palm to the earth. A pug with a Konoha forehead protector and a blue vest appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Pakkun," Kakashi said with a nod.

"Yo," the dog greeted. "You call me to finally meet your brats?" All three genin's eyebrows twitched in annoyance.

"We're right here, you know," Sakura said through clenched teeth.

"We're tracking another genin team," Kakashi told the dog. "They got assigned a mission with bad intel. I need you to find their trail."

"Fine, fine, put me right to work," the dog said, clearly disgruntled.

Naruto watched the dog sniffing around, wondering about the summons. He'd known in passing that Kakashi had dog summons, but he'd never seen one of them before.

"I got it," the dog said. "And I smell blood. Lots of it."

They immediately began after the missing team, following the pug along the main road, now certain something had befallen the team before they'd been able to catch up.

"Shit," Kakashi muttered as they found the scene of what had obviously been a bloody battle. "Spread out. See if anyone's still here."

Naruto and his teammates nodded and split up, searching through the area for any sign of survivors.

"No one," Naruto reported back. "Just these." He showed a handful of kunai and shuriken. Sasuke and Sakura had similar reports.

"They continued this way," Pakkun said, picking the scent back up. Team Seven hurried after him. Naruto wondered whether the scent Pakkun was following was from the team's corpses, and fervently hoped that wasn't the case.

It wasn't long before Kakashi signaled them all to stop, and Naruto could hear the distinctive sounds of clanging and grinding of metal against metal. Which told him at least one of the Konoha nins was still alive. They maneuvered more carefully into position to get a visual on the situation. All three genin seemed to be alive, though one of them and their Jounin sensei both appeared to be rather grievously injured. And the one Naruto assumed was the client looked terrified out of his mind, but relatively uninjured.

The two genin still standing were making a valiant effort against a missing nin who Naruto ranked at the Jounin level by virtue of his chakra alone. It was easy to see he was taunting the genin, playing with them like a cat would its food. He looked to Kakashi, who was suddenly transformed from their amusingly perverted, good-humored sensei, into the fiercely intense shinobi who'd made Jounin at twelve and was one of Konoha's most feared nins.

He flicked his left hand, using the ANBU sign language to tell his team he'd take on the missing nin while they were to collect the Konoha team and their client. There were no arguments from any of them, Naruto least of all. Kakashi had been excruciatingly thorough in drilling into them that while they might have been advanced for genin, there was still a vast difference between an advanced genin and a Jounin. Naruto suspected that Kakashi secretly enjoyed those lessons just a bit more than was strictly necessary.

Then Kakashi gave the 'go' signal, and they all blurred into action. It only took them moments for the genin to retrieve their objectives and regroup by where Jiraiya was standing, still examining the tube and waiting for them to be through.

"We have to help Kuro-sensei," one of the genin protested, struggling against Naruto's hold to get back to fighting the missing-nin.

"Cut it out, Kakashi-sensei is taking care of that guy," Naruto said, even as he threw out a half-dozen of his special kunai to create onigiri kage bunshin to act as look-outs while he was distracted. Jiraiya's attention immediately snapped to the onigiri bunshin.

"If you go back out there, you'll only distract Kakashi-sensei and you'll get yourselves and him killed," Naruto bluntly told the two genin. "So sit down and shut up until I tell you otherwise. Now Sakura, anything you can do to help any of these guys?"

"I… I don't… Maybe," Sakura said, biting her bottom lip in worry. "I don't know that much yet, and I might…"

"Sakura, it's you or nothing for now," Naruto said. "So can you help any of them heal? Yes or no."

She took a deep breath.

"Yes," she said. "I'll try."

Sasuke nodded in clear endorsement and set to guarding them as she worked on the very injured Jounin-sensei and genin. Then Naruto turned to the other two genin.

"Now you two are going to tell me everything that's happened," Naruto told them. The kunoichi began to speak.

"We were assigned a C-ranked mission to escort the bridge builder Tazuna back to Wave and guard him from bandits while he finished his bridge," she summarized quickly. "We were attacked by two missing nin when we were a bit more than two-thirds of the way to Tazuna-san's home. Kuro-sensei killed them, but was injured and fell unconscious, and since we were closer to Tazuna-san's than Konoha we opted to bring him there. Then we were attacked by this missing nin, and you came."

Naruto nodded, then cursed as the male genin slumped over and passed out. He called Sakura over, then turned his attention to Kakashi, to see whether he needed anything or not. His eye caught Jiraiya giving him a look but he couldn't read what was behind it, so he put it aside for the moment to concentrate on the immediate problems before him.

The missing nin suddenly turned towards them, appearing in their midst with a burst of swirling mist, swinging his giant sword towards the client. One of the onigiri kage bunshin tackled Tazuna out of the way, though the sword swiped its back, slashing it open so that it bled profusely. The missing nin spun toward the real Naruto, sword bearing down on him. He rolled out of the way, automatically slicing a kunai at him as he passed even though he knew it wouldn't come close to striking the ninja. Then Kakashi was there, parrying the giant sword with only a kunai, giving Naruto a chance to get completely out of the way. He'd never been more grateful for his sensei before.

Barely a moment had passed with the two Jounin struggling against each other when a masked hunter nin suddenly swooped out of the trees. The missing nin's eyes widened before he fled, the hunter nin in fast pursuit.

Naruto blinked, uncertain of what had just happened.

"What the fuck?" he demanded, eyes narrowing in confusion at the sudden end to the heated battle. But Kakashi didn't answer him or pursue the missing nin, so he dismissed his off feeling to concentrate on what he knew needed to be done and quickly briefing Kakashi on what the genin had told him. Kakashi's eye slit dangerously as he turned to Tazuna.

"You are going to tell me why there are missing nin after you," Kakashi ordered the bridge builder, countenance leaving it clear there was no room for argument. Tazuna quavered. "Now."

He spilled his guts, weaving a story about Gato Corporation's slowly taking over Wave and strangling its economy and its people. And how Tazuna had wanted to change all that with his bridge.

"I knew he might hire missing nin," Tazuna said piteously. "But this bridge is the last hope of a nation, and we only had enough money to pay for a C-ranked mission and nothing else."

"Not really true," Jiraiya said, contributing for the first time as he moved away from examining one of Naruto's onigiri clones. Naruto noted the clone was glad to be away from Jiraiya's prodding. "There's a lot Konoha probably would have accepted en lieu of cash. An exclusive right of first refusal for all ninja contracts, preferential trade status, maybe. We've done things like that in the past, when it's been necessary."

Tazuna looked scared and baffled, running his hands over his face.

"Sakura, how are Kuro and his genin?" Kakashi asked.

"I've done the most I think I'll be able to," she said. "I've studied a bunch of scrolls, but I've never done anything like this before, especially not in the field."

Kakashi nodded that he understood, and looked over what she'd done as she explained it further.

"Good," he said. "You agree they can be moved without further injury?" She nodded. "Then we're headed back to Konoha."

"But… but… what about me?" Tazuna sputtered.

"I really couldn't care less," Kakashi said, eyes and voice flat. "You lied and endangered my fellow Konoha shinobi. But worst of all, it forced my team to come after you, and my kids could have been _killed, _which makes me more inclined to kill you myself than to help you at all."

"But the bridge," he pleaded. "It's the last hope for my home. For all of Wave."

"Not my problem."

"What if I promised all that stuff that guy said," Tazuna asked desperately. "About ninja contracts and trading."

"Like I said, not my prob…"

"It's a deal," Jiraiya interrupted as he pulled a piece of paper from the message tube he'd appropriated from Kakashi and glanced through it. "The Hokage has agreed to the change in the mission parameters. So long as the drunk here actually has the authority to agree on behalf of the Wave." Kakashi ground his teeth in frustration, but didn't speak against it.

"I'm all that's left," Tazuna said. "I'm the only one who could be headman or elder, so I'm both by default, I guess."

"Ano, excuse me, please," asked the female genin from the team they'd rescued. "What about Kuro-sensei? And my teammates?"

"Hokage-sama will send a medic with an escort," Jiraiya said. "For now, we just need to get to Wave."

"Oh," she said. "Good." Then she passed out.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It hadn't taken them long to reach the channel separating Wave from the mainland, not with the genin of Team 7 plus a handful of Naruto's clones carrying the unconscious Konoha team and the client.

But when they got to the water, Tazuna frowned.

"A friend with a boat was supposed to meet me," he said, sounding concerned. "I hope Gato didn't find out and…"

Tazuna trailed off and they were all left to consider what Gato might have done to the man.

"Is there any other way to get to Wave?" Kakashi asked.

"Not until my bridge is finished."

"Hmm." Jiraiya looked across the water towards Wave, then shrugged. Sasuke recognized the series of hand seals Kakashi had used not too long ago to summon the dog. He'd thought it was a personalized summoning jutsu, but if it was a universal one… Sasuke let the Sharingan memorize the jutsu, just in case he ever came across a summoning contract.

As soon as Jiraiya bit his thumb and slammed his palm to the ground, a large toad appeared.

"… Giant… frog…" Tazuna stammered, pointing at it faintly. Sasuke could understand his shock. He wouldn't admit it—not even under duress—but seeing a toad the size of a small house freaked him out just a little bit, too.

"Well?" Jiraiya asked, jumping up on the toad's back. "You coming or not?"

Kakashi let out a hefty sigh and rubbed the back of his head. "Mou, I hate riding on toads," he grumbled. "I never quite got the hang of it. Why don't we just walk across the channel instead?"

"Stop bitching, gaki," Jiraiya said. Sasuke wondered if there were anyone else in all of the elemental countries who could get away with calling Sensei a brat. Seeing Kakashi's narrowed eye, he doubted it.

"Now get your asses up here. Gamakoi is a great swimmer." Jiraiya patted the toad's back. "He'll get us across the channel in no time."

"Yeah, yeah," Kakashi grumbled, picking up the still stunned Tazuna and jumping up on the toad. "Get up here, you brats. If I have to suffer through this, so do you."

Sasuke grimaced as he landed on the toad's back. He hadn't realized how slimy it would be.

"Oh, gross," Sakura complained. "I'm totally burning this dress when we get back home. Toad slime is _disgusting_."

Sasuke waited for Naruto to make some complaint, but he only sat quietly on his side of the toad, not looking at any of them. Very unusual behavior for the blonde. But, then, Naruto had been acting strange ever since he confronted him about his secrets. He clenched his fist in frustration and hoped it was because Naruto was feeling guilty for being so secretive, for not trusting his friends. Not that, even if it was, the guilt was changing anything.

Naruto glanced over at them, and Sasuke caught something on his face he couldn't quite identify. Longing? Sadness? Loss? He wasn't sure. But he suddenly felt guilty himself. Naruto may have been his best friend, but he swore sometimes it seemed like he existed just to vex him. And if Naruto didn't trust him, what kind of friends could they really be? Could they ever have really been?

"Let's go," Jiraiya said, breaking his train of thought.

The toad suddenly leapt into the air, and it was only by luck that Sasuke was able to move his chakra quickly enough attach himself to the thing's back that he didn't go flying. Then the toad landed in the water with a splash, soaking them all through. Sakura shrieked in fury.

"Shit, I really hate toads," Kakashi muttered.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sarutobi rubbed at his eyes as he finished reading the latest message from Jiraiya. While he was pleased Jiraiya was intrigued enough by the properties of Naruto's message tube to follow along (and, he hoped, follow Team Seven all the way back to Konoha) the contents of the message itself disturbed him. For a mission to be so badly mis-ranked was a grave error he would have to address quickly to ensure it didn't happen again.

But it was strange how these things seemed to follow Naruto around. First Kimato, now Wave. Both had important strategic locations, and Naruto was going to be intimately involved in shoring up both villages' loyalty to Konoha. It was something to think on.

His thoughts were interrupted by a rustling and a faint hint of chakra he easily recognized.

"Tsunade? You really came back to Konoha?" The surprise was clear in his voice.

"If you didn't think I'd come, why send me the message in the first place?" she asked dryly.

"Hope springs eternal."

"For you, anyway," Tsunade muttered.

"I can't tell you how pleased I am to have you back in Konoha," the Third said, strategically ignoring her peevish comment as he tapped out the pipe his student had always hated. "What is it that changed your mind this time, that you would come back now but not at any of my other requests?"

"Nothing, really," she said, lazily settling herself on a chair. "But that blonde kid you sent after me, that Naruto, he convinced me it was time to start paying off my debts."

Sarutobi didn't respond for a moment, as he added this to the list of Naruto's accomplishments.

"Then you want to return to active duty?" the Hokage asked. He'd never expected Tsunade to willingly return to Konoha at all, much less to work.

"No, not at all." Tsunade laughed. "Really, I don't think I'm fit for active duty. I'm taking another apprentice, and I'm opening a Medical Academy."

"Truly?" he asked, equal parts thrilled and surprised. "An academy for medic nins. That would certainly be beneficial for Konoha, so long as you don't take too many of our active duty nins away from their other responsibilities."

"Tch, you never would give me my pick of ninja to train," she scoffed. "I'll take some kids. At least they probably won't have picked up too many bad habits yet."

His mind raced through several options as she got up and began to pace around the room.

"No one knows I'm back yet, so I'm going to scout out possible locations while I'm still under the radar," she said. "I'd appreciate it if you'd let me announce my return in my own time." She gave him a significant look.

"Of course," he agreed. "I would like to discuss this with you in more detail, but at the moment I must find a medic nin and an escort to send after your young friend Naruto and his team. Perhaps we can adjourn until this evening."

"What happened?" Tsunade asked, a keen look in her eyes that Sarutobi hadn't seen there in years. "Kakashi said they were just going after that Jiraiya. How much trouble could they really have gotten into?"

He gave her the broad strokes of the situation, and she was up and leaving before he was even finished.

"Shizune and I will take care of it," she said. "We'll be back."

And she was gone. Considering that the last time he'd tried to mention Jiraiya to her she'd put a calligraphy brush through his desk, he wasn't sure whether to be glad she'd left before he could tell her Jiraiya was still with Team 7 or to dread having to deal with her reaction once she'd returned.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

They'd made it to Tazuna's house without encountering any other missing nins. That isn't to say it was a trip without incident, as Sakura had attempted to murder Jiraiya as soon as they'd made it to dry land again. Naruto was relatively sure Kakashi had something to do with her managing to sucker punch the old man, as their sensei seemed to enjoy the toad ride even less than Sakura had.

Naruto didn't get what was so bad about it. Toads were awesome.

Tazuna's daughter had met them as soon as they'd neared their home and had helped settle the injured genin team and their sensei into one of the bedrooms. Then she'd gone to bed herself, leaving Team 7 plus Jiraiya to their business. They'd taken over the dining room as their headquarters, such as it was. The table was rickety, and none of the chairs were particularly comfortable. Not to mention that if any of them had four legs the same height, Naruto had yet to find it.

"So Gato's hired Momochi Zabuza, missing nin from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Also known as the Demon of the Mist," Kakashi started off their impromptu meeting.

Sasuke had pointedly sat next to him, though he'd also pointedly not said a word to him. Naruto had no idea what point Sasuke was trying to make, but he was sure there was one. Somewhere. Maybe. Possibly. Well, there was a chance of it, anyway.

"I don't know who the fake hunter nin was, but we'll have to assume he's a Jounin-level accomplice," Kakashi was saying when Naruto tuned back in to the conversation.

"Accomplice?" Sakura asked, surprised. "But wasn't Momochi running from the hunter nin?"

"I think it was Jiraiya-sama he was running from," Sasuke said thoughtfully.

"You knew the hunter nin was a fake?" Sakura asked. Sasuke shook his head.

"I knew something was strange with how they tore out of there once Momochi caught sight of Jiraiya-sama, but I didn't know the hunter nin was fake, no."

Naruto suppressed a sigh. He'd seen the same things Sasuke and Kakashi had, but hadn't caught any of that.

Jiraiya leaned forward on the table, resting his chin on his hand.

"Momochi Zabuza doesn't worry me," he said with the casual dismissal that could only come with the complete self-confidence of one of Konoha's greatest legends. Because Naruto had borrowed Kakashi's bingo book (from his pouch when he wasn't paying attention) to look Momochi up, and had found he was not a missing nin to be taken lightly. And he'd decided he was very happy to have both Kakashi-sensei and Jiraiya with them. Hearing the hunter-nin was an accomplice only made him more so.

"It's as likely as not they've fled. A missing nin would put more value on surviving the job than anything else. After all, they're only out for themselves and what's the point of completing a mission if you're not alive to enjoy the rewards?" Jiraiya clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back on the only good chair in the entire place. "Nope. Those missing nin won't be a problem. Let's just find out where this Gato is, hunh?"

"I'm on it." Kakashi nodded. "Sasuke, with me. Sakura, look after the other team until the medics get here. Naruto, you're with Jiraiya. See what he wants from you."

They all three nodded, then Sasuke followed Kakashi out the door and Sakura headed back up to the bedroom they'd converted into a make-shift infirmary. Naruto had to admit he was a little glad to be out from under Sasuke's scrutiny. Being watched constantly wasn't exactly something he was unfamiliar with, but Sasuke seemed a lot more intent on it than any of the disapproving villagers had ever been. He wondered what Sasuke was worried about him doing, or whether it was just because now that he knew where Naruto was from, he didn't trust him anymore.

A definite possibility, no matter how unsettling.

"Alright, brat," Jiraiya said, letting his chair fall forward again and leaning his elbows on the table. "Kakashi wanted me to teach you a few things about seals. So why don't you show me what you've got?"

"Sure," Naruto said with a shrug, deliberately casual. Because that Kakashi had lined up another teacher made Naruto very nervous, especially given the timing of it. Surely he wasn't trying to get rid of him as a student, Naruto tried to reassure himself. He wasn't exactly successful. "What do you want to see first?"

Naruto pulled a small scroll from his inner jacket and unfurled it about a foot, looking for a specific storage seal. Then he bit his thumb and swiped it over the seal with a bit of his chakra to unlock it.

"You carry the specs around on you?" Jiraiya asked skeptically.

"Of course." After all, it was the only place Naruto could be sure he would know immediately if it were stolen.

Jiraiya snatched the scroll from him and began reading it. He looked up from the scroll.

"This is gibberish," he accused crossly.

"Of course it is," Naruto agreed. "You don't think I'd leave it unsecured so that any old perv who wanted to peep could check it out, do you?"

Jiraiya scrutinized the large scroll more carefully.

"A low-level genjutsu," he murmured, catching and breaking it.

"And an explosive tag?" he asked, surprised to see such an obvious line of defense. And one that was so easily dealt with. He began the seal sequence to dismantle the tag. "We'll have to work on how you secure your…"

Jiraiya put his fingers to the seal and the whole scroll disappeared. His eyes shot to Naruto, who only smiled.

"What happened to it?" Jiraiya asked.

"I told you," Naruto said. "I take care of what's mine, and I sure as hell don't leave something like this under such little security."

He pulled out his main storage scroll and again unsealed the scroll.

"When someone tampers with the seal, it automatically returns to my storage scroll," Naruto explained, this time disabling the security before handing it over to Jiraiya.

"Let me show you what I did in Kimato," he said.

It was, to his mind, his most impressive work to date. And, though he hated why he had to do it, he knew that it was important to hedge his bets. Which meant he needed to make sure Jiraiya was impressed and interested enough to take him on, just in case Kakashi was planning to ditch him.

And for the first time in his life, Naruto found himself wishing to lose a bet.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto was listlessly browsing through a books on seals when he heard Sasuke and Kakashi come back. Jiraiya had taken a few hours to glance through all of his scrolls, then shoved a stack of books on seals at him.

"Even when the bridge is finished, it's going to be a weak point," Jiraiya had said. "If someone wanted to cut off Fire from Wave, their first point of attack would be that bridge. So you're going to come up with a sealing structure that will protect it. Kakashi says you're a genius. Now prove it."

Naruto bit his bottom lip as he considered what he'd have to do. He knew seals to increase durability—he'd based his onigiri bunshin around modified durability seals, after all. But durability seals would only help keep the bridge from normal wear and tear. Jiraiya was talking about a seal structure that would protect it from a full-fledged attack designed to destroy it.

And the texts Jiraiya had given him weren't any help. At all. In fact, they were barely more informative than the primers from the Konoha Shinobi Library that he'd read months ago. He thunked his head down on the table contemplating his next step.

He had no idea where to begin.

Not that he'd ever admit that. Not to Jiraiya. Not when he needed him to take him on as a student.

Not when this was some stupid as fuck test that he didn't want to have to pass in order to prove himself, but knew he had to anyway.

He lifted his head when he heard someone walk into the room, and cocked his head to the side that it was Sasuke. Who only looked back at him calmly and sat down without a word.

Just like every other time Naruto had turned around since Hifu, Sasuke was there, watching him. He wasn't sure what Sasuke was after (other than perhaps driving him out of his mind—which he was accomplishing quite well), but if there was a point to it all, Sasuke wasn't sharing.

And Sasuke wasn't talking. At least, not to him. Not that that was particularly unusual. Of the four of them, Sasuke had even Kakashi beat when it came to communicating without words. So he wasn't particularly surprised when Sasuke took out a whetstone and began to work on his kunai wordlessly.

Naruto took a deep breath then tried to go back to his seals, but he couldn't focus properly and the rhythmic scraping sound of Sasuke dragging the blade against the stone kept stealing his attention.

"What are you doing," Naruto finally asked. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"I don't mean the kunai," Naruto said, interpreting the look. "I mean why have you been doing this." He gestured between them. "You know. Following me. Watching me."

Sasuke eyed him for a handful of moments, then looked away.

"I'm waiting," he finally said. Which, though progress as Sasuke had spoken actual words to him, told Naruto absolutely nothing. Which, in turn, drove Naruto absolutely _insane._

"What are you waiting for?"

Sasuke only shook his head and went back to his kunai. The bastard.

Determined to ignore him, Naruto started searching Jiraiya's books more closely. Just because none of the seals detailed in them had descriptions that said, "Pick me! I'm designed to defend a bridge from insane shinobi and warlords." Or even, "Handy for defending civilian infrastructure," that didn't mean that they necessarily had no application here.

And maybe that was part of this stupid test Jiraiya had set him. Maybe he was supposed to find the needle in the haystack that was best modified into… well, into something, anyway.

More than half the problem, he realized, was that he didn't know what he needed to protect it from. He knew how _he_ would destroy a bridge (explosives could solve most problems in life, no matter _what_ Kakashi-sensei said to the contrary) but he knew other ninja would use a whole host of different methods.

"Oy, bastard, if you wanted to destroy the old man's bridge, how would you do it?"

"Fire," Sasuke said, raising an eyebrow at him as though the answer should have been self-evident.

"… It's a concrete and steel bridge," Naruto replied. "Does that shit even burn?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Everything burns if the fire's hot enough."

And he supposed Sasuke would know. Pyro.

So whatever he came up with would have to make the bridge explosion-proof and fire-proof. And, he considered, pursing his lips, what if the shinobi was a water type? He could make a huge wave to crush the bridge. He thought of what Kakashi had done in Kimato to help empty out the bowl for the lake, and decided that a talented shinobi could probably either sink the entire bridge into the earth underneath the channel, or call up a tornado to tear it apart.

An enemy could pour acid on the structural supports, call down lightning to crack the surface apart, summon a big ass toad to squash it… The possibilities were endless.

"Shit," he muttered, thunking his head back on the table.

"How's it coming, genius?"

Naruto's head whipped up at Jiraiya's voice.

"Fine!" Naruto insisted, pasting a grin on his face. "Fine fine fine. Everything's… just… er, fine?"

"Good, good," Jiraiya said, heading back out of the room with a wave. "Make sure you don't disappoint me, genius."

"I won't, I'm…" he trailed off as Jiraiya was already gone. "…fine."

His head fell to the table with an audible thunk this time. Face buried in his hands, he didn't notice Sasuke scowling after Jiraiya, or the protective glint in his teammate's eye as he looked to Naruto again before restarting on his kunai.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next day passed in much the same manner as the first. With Sakura caring for the injured team; with Kakashi and Sasuke doing recon work on Gato; with Jiraiya doing Kami only knew what; and with Naruto poring over every bit of information he could get his hands on about fuuinjutsu and desperately trying to come up with an answer to Jiraiya's puzzle.

Around midday, Naruto had come up with the brilliant idea that the books Jiraiya had given him were all a code. Because there was no real need for a man known to be one of the world's foremost experts in the topic to have what amounted to beginner's books. He'd spent two hours trying to decode it before coming to the conclusion that instead of codes, it must be under some seal-based genjutsu, similar to what he had on his own research scrolls.

That had wasted another hour before he'd admitted defeat.

He'd even debated lifting some of the scrolls Jiraiya carried on his person, but decided it was too risky. After all, for a man to spend as much time behind the red line as Jiraiya did, he'd have to be really good or he'd be fleeced ten times over.

With all the failures of the day, Naruto had been certain to be long gone by the time Kakashi and Sasuke had returned to Tazuna's house. Maybe it was cowardly of him, but Naruto had long ago decided that survival was paramount to anything else. And he wasn't at all sure he could take another round of Sasuke pointedly ignoring him, or the casual dismissiveness from Kakashi, not when things between them were so uncertain and he wasn't sure he had a place with them anymore. Not when he was failing so miserably at Jiraiya's test.

So he'd found a fairly comfortable spot on the roof to lie back and hide as he watched the stars come out, determined to try to think things through and figure out what he should do.

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked, popping up to the roof.

He started in surprise. He hadn't counted on Kakashi finding him, not while he was hiding. But even as it annoyed him, he couldn't help but be a little relieved Kakashi had cared enough to search him out.

Kakashi cocked his head to the side, wondering why the boy looked so distraught. Well, he considered, he didn't so much look distraught, as he looked like he was hiding that he was distraught. And on top of that, he'd definitely been hiding more than just his emotional state by stealing away to the roof.

Not that a genin's attempt at hiding would stop Kakashi when he wanted to check in with him. The chakra signature was faint, but Kakashi had been tracking better shinobi than Naruto for longer than the boy had been alive, so it didn't much matter whether Naruto was trying to hide. He was sitting on the edge of the roof, one leg dangling over the side as he held onto the other, bent and tucked closely into his chest. Kakashi took a seat next to him, watching as the boy seemed to pull in on himself, laying his head on his knee.

"Yo," Kakashi asked, hoping to get some sort of insight into the boy's mind. "So… anything you want to talk about?"

"Mm," Naruto declined, too afraid of being discarded to want to show where his soft parts were. He had far too much experience with people finding them just to use them to hurt him to be willing to give that up easily. He had a hope—a faint one—that since Kakashi had sought him out, maybe he'd been overreacting. Maybe Kakashi wasn't looking to throw him away. Maybe he didn't care about where Naruto was from, or that he didn't have a family.

Kakashi cocked his head to the side, confused as to what, exactly, was going on. Then he caught sight of two figures hurrying towards them, and went on alert.

"Tsunade-sama? Shizune-san?" he called out, recognizing them. "They must be our medics," he continued more softly. "Naruto, I'm going to assign you to Jiraiya-sama. You'll be reporting to him until further notice."

Leaping off the roof, Kakashi missed the flinch that followed his words. Naruto took a few deep breaths, determined that the water he felt gathering in his eyes would not fall.

"So that's it," Naruto whispered. "I was right, then."

He couldn't quite believe it, even as he stared after Kakashi in shock. Even as he felt his chest squeezing so tightly he could barely breathe.

"Kakashi… doesn't want me anymore. They… they don't want me anymore. That's just… it. It's over, and that's just it."

He slapped his palm down on the roof in anger. He should have known not to let himself hope. To let himself think any of them had ever really wanted him. He'd never been worth anything to anyone before, so why would it have changed just because he wore a stupid piece of metal on his head now?

"Fuck it. I should have fucking known better. Fuck me."

Then he swallowed it all down, determined to get Jiraiya to take him on, and followed Kakashi and the women inside.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"What the hell have you brats gotten yourselves into?" Tsunade demanded as she looked at the bedraggled and mostly unconscious genin team they'd come to bail out.

"Poison has gotten deeply imbedded into his organs, Tsunade-sama," Shizune said. "I don't know if I'll be able to get it."

"I put him in stasis, or tried to, anyway," Sakura said biting her lip. "Did I make it worse?"

"No, in fact, you probably saved his life. If it had gotten much worse, I don't know that even Tsunade-sama could have saved him."

Tsunade took a steadying breath, then called up her medical chakra to open herself to Shizune, so she could piggyback off of her diagnostic. Medical ninjutsu was a vastly different practice than ninjutsu for a variety of reasons, but one of the most fundamental differences was in how it welcomed—and in fact was created so it could be—a group effort.

"Sakura, if you're serious about becoming my apprentice, join into the meld now," Tsunade ordered. Startled, Sakura hesitated, then tentatively extended her chakra. Tsunade caught it and joined it into the mix, and Tsunade extracted the poison from the Jounin's organs. And Sakura felt Tsunade drawing _her_ chakra to do it. She'd read about it, of course. It was one of the most common iryounin practices for the most experienced medic nin to direct the healing, using the chakra of the lesser nins in the meld; it gave the experienced nin the biggest pool of chakra to work from, and the lesser nins a front row view of how healing worked. But she'd never expected to participate in something like this so soon in her training, and especially not with the legendary Senju Tsunade.

Somewhere in between the first genin she healed and the Jounin, Tsunade felt Sakura fall out of the meld, obviously passed out from chakra exhaustion. She made a note to teach the girl how to stop offering up her chakra to the meld while still staying in it in order to continue viewing the healing. It was quick work for she and Shizune to finish the remaining two genin, then she turned to Kakashi.

"What's going on here?" she asked. "I thought you were taking your brats and going after that bum Jiraiya?"

"Did I hear my name?" Jiraiya asked, sauntering in. "Tsunade-hime?" His eyes were wide in surprise. "What in the world are you doing here?"

Tsunade shrugged.

"I was talking to the old man, and he mentioned the blonde brat was in a bind, so we came," she said.

"The blonde… you mean Naruto?" Jiraiya asked.

"Mm," Tsunade agreed. "We met during a poker tournament. They mentioned they were going after you with the same message from the old man. Are you going back, too?"

"Wait, you're actually returning to Konoha?" Jiraiya asked incredulously, slapping his face twice in rapid succession to wake himself up but the scene before him didn't change. "After all this time?"

"I'm starting a medical academy," she said. Jiraiya's eyes cut to Naruto, who was smiling stupidly.

"Hey, Baachan," he said with a grin. She only sighed, in hopes that ignoring his antics would make him stop calling her that ridiculous name. Jiraiya choked.

"So are you lot going to fill me in or what?" she asked.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Kakashi said I should report to you until further notice," Naruto told Jiraiya the next morning, heart still aching over it. It surprised him how much his team's rejection hurt him. He'd thought he'd become inured to such things long ago. He'd been glad that Tsunade and Shizune had been there, even if just for the night—their presence had managed to distract him from Team Seven for a while. But they'd left, patients in tow, at first light, leaving him without even the distraction of caring for the injured team's needs.

"Good," Jiraiya nodded, motioning him to have a seat. "Kakashi's team is going to concentrate on protecting the workers as they build the bridge while Kakashi tracks Gato down."

Naruto wanted to protest that _he_ was on Kakashi's team, but knew it was pointless. And really, he wasn't anymore anyway.

"So what do you want from me?"

"Other than that seal structure?" Jiraiya asked archly. Naruto cursed inside his head—he knew very well Jiraiya still wanted that damn seal structure, the bastard didn't have to rub it in that he _still_ had no clue—but only let out a nod.

"Are you sure? If you need more time to work out the fuuinjutsu assignment, I'm sure I can pull one of your teammates to cover it," Jiraiya offered.

"No, no, I'll be fine," Naruto protested quickly, waving his suggestion off. "I can do both."

"Alright. Well, if you're sure you're up for an additional assignment, I can accommodate you," Jiraiya said, finishing his tea and rising from the table. "We'll be prepping Wave for Gato's replacement. The Daimyo is sending a few of his trade advisors and the representatives from a few of his shipping companies shortly."

Naruto cocked his head to the side, forcefully pulling his mind away from fuuinjutsu and back to Jiraiya.

"What do you mean, prepping Wave?"

"Have you seen the people here? They've been so cowed by Gato and his men, I don't think they can fathom that he might be gone someday. And once he is gone, sometimes places go a little crazy when the dictator abruptly leaves power. We don't want Wave to go crazy and try to fight off Fire's influence. We especially don't want them to do it by suddenly remembering they can fight. Eventually, they'd realize that Fire can help make their lives better, but that could take some time. So we'll just be… helping that process speed along, so to speak."

"You don't mean helping along like I helped Tsunade along in returning to Konoha, right?" he asked skeptically. "Because that'll be… well, really expensive."

"What?" Jiraiya asked, blinking in surprise. "You mean bribe them? Wait, you were serious before? You mean you actually bribed Tsunade to get her back to Konoha?"

"Of course not," Naruto scoffed. "That never would have worked. I had to buy off her debtors and blackmail her to go back to Konoha."

"You blackmailed her," he said, dazed. "You really blackmailed her."

"Well, technically, she lost a bet," Naruto admitted. "The blackmail was just to make sure she actually followed through on her end of the bet."

Jiraiya just shook his head.

"How in the world did a kid manage to find her debtors in the first place?" he asked. Naruto froze, then decided that this time, he was going to lay it all on the line. If Jiraiya was going to discard him when he found out about his origins, then so be it, but he wasn't going to go through what he had with Team Seven again.

"I'm a gutter rat, Jiraiya," Naruto said seriously. "A child of the red light district. An Akasenko. I grew up with thieves and murderers and whores and conmen. And the yakuza. Finding the people who held Tsunade's debt wasn't the problem; making sure they'd leave me alone after I got what I wanted from them was."

Jiraiya stared at him for a while, as though uncertain what to make of him.

"Since Kakashi's… handing me off to you after this mission is over, I thought I'd put it out there," Naruto said with a nonchalant shrug that didn't betray the tense nervousness he was feeling. "Because if you're going to drop me because of it, I'd rather know now so I can start looking for a new sensei right away, instead of just when I'm starting to get comfortable with you." He snapped his mouth closed, unsure of why the last bit had come out and hoping that hadn't let too much slip.

"Where you're from doesn't bother me, kid," Jiraiya said finally, after so long had passed Naruto wondered if he wasn't trying to figure out how to expel him from the mission and the shinobi corps right there. Naruto let his shoulders slump in relief.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

Jiraiya nodded. "Now let's talk about what we're going to do about Gato. Here's what I'm thinking…"

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"No, no," he said eagerly to another fisherman as he sat beside the older man with a rod and pole of his own leaning against the bar, and a henge to make himself fit right in. "I hear this guy wants to get rid of all those thugs and get back to having a real trading company come through here. He ain't in shipping, but he's a trader by nature and has himself a lot of connections in the Mainland. If we're lucky, maybe he knows folks in the Fire Court. That would mean a helluva lot more trading through here."

"Hmm, is 'at so?" the fisherman asked. "Well, best of luck to him, then."

"Yeah, maybe we'll be able to get some jobs," a guy who'd just joined them added.

"Hm," Naruto nodded. "Can only hope, right?" He slammed his glass back on the rickety, plain wood table and stood, making sure to wobble. "Well, best get goin' then. Think I've had enough."

The men at the table laughed and ribbed him a bit as he weaved his way out of the bar. He ducked into an alley and changed the henge to a different looking fisherman and repeated a mildly similar story in another bar.

Naruto was pleased with the preliminary results of the whisper campaign. He'd only been spreading rumors among the locals for a few days, and already they were flying around about the possibilities of anything from a hostile takeover of Gato corps to Gato's imminent suicide. A few more days, he thought as he continued his charade as a fisherman, and the rumors would really take on their own life.

He'd had no idea how effective such a tactic could be when Jiraiya had coached him in it, and he'd been skeptical. After watching Jiraiya impersonate two of Gato's thugs complaining to each other about the Cloud shinobi coming after Gato, and seeing how quickly those rumors had spread, Naruto had been convinced. And had gone on to spread a few dozen more rumors, where the only common theme had been Gato's eventual demise.

The occasional lauding of Fire and Konoha worked its way in frequently, of course, but couldn't be universal. At least, that was what Jiraiya had said. He didn't think the locals would catch on—they didn't seem sophisticated enough to figure out their ruse—but Jiraiya had said that it wasn't a good habit to slack off on easy assignments, or it would become a bad habit, and bad habits habitually killed good shinobi.

Naruto wasn't sure that he was a good shinobi yet, but he was determined he wouldn't be a dead one, so he followed Jiraiya's advice and only mentioned Fire or Konoha every third conversation he had.

He created a few onigiri bunshin and used a henge to turn them all into reasonable facsimiles of Gato's henchmen and headed into another random bar.

He really loved this assignment.

Of course, it also had the added bonus of giving him a valid reason to spend as little time in the house as possible while Kakashi and his team were there. He wasn't sure how long he could stand having his exclusion rubbed in his face, not when Sasuke and Sakura had been assigned to cover the bridge without him during the day and assisting Kakashi during the night, so he'd taken the precaution of being there as little as possible. With the legitimate cover of running the whisper campaign down in the village, he could be gone as often as he wanted.

And when he was there, he managed to either hide himself away to work on the stupid seal structure—which he _still_ wasn't certain how to complete, which was causing him more panic and concern than he was willing to admit even to himself—or closet himself with Jiraiya to work on other ways to screw Gato over while they waited for the Fire Daimyo's people to show up.

That part was really fun.

No matter how unsettling it was that Sasuke was still somehow finding all of his hiding places and sitting with him, just watching him silently. If he didn't know better, he'd have said Sasuke had picked up his fan girls' stalker tendencies. As it was, it was just salt in an open wound that his teammate didn't trust him enough to be without a watcher.

Three bars later, Naruto took a look at the sun and decided it was safe enough to go back. Kakashi and the others had undoubtedly eaten dinner and would be heading out shortly. The whisper campaign, after all, wasn't the only part of their plan.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The op, much to Jiraiya's satisfaction, was going very smoothly. More smoothly than he'd expected, in fact, given the additional help Naruto had been able to provide him in preparing for the Daimyo's people. But while it was certainly very useful for Naruto to have the skill set that he did, Jiraiya couldn't help but be troubled by the fact that a twelve-year-old had them at all, much less to the degree of expertise Naruto held. After all, not even shinobi children often knew how to forge documents or embezzle money or blackmail important figures straight out of the Academy. In fact, the only thing Jiraiya had had to give him pointers on was the whisper campaign. And he hadn't even had to do much there—the boy seemed to be a natural.

He knew a lot of those skills came from being a self-proclaimed gutter rat. But that had only caused Jiraiya even more consternation, as he knew well and good that Naruto should have been no such thing. So that he'd apparently grown up in one of the rougher neighborhoods was very troubling to him. And he hadn't missed the familiar way Naruto had acted at the brothel in Hifu. The other two brats had been uncomfortable and antsy when he'd finally emerged from the ladies' tender mercies.

But not Naruto. No, he'd been playing that crazy card-game he'd often seen the house girls play, and Naruto was playing it as though he'd been doing it for years. Added to the fact that Naruto had called the girls "Neechan" and the brothel's mistress "Mother," and—as he'd found out when he'd settled with the mistress—had known to slip her some cash to keep her happy instead of helping Jiraiya slip out the side way, Jiraiya had a good idea that Naruto spent quite a bit of time in Konoha's Akasen when he was growing up. Which wasn't just another rough neighborhood, and definitely not a place anyone would want a child wandering around alone and without guidance and protection.

The whole thing raised far too many questions for him, and Jiraiya planned to grill Sarutobi about it extensively when he returned to Konoha. But for the moment, it wasn't something Jiraiya could spend too much time focusing on. There was getting rid of Gato to deal with, and figuring out just why, exactly, Naruto seemed to think that he was going to apprentice to him. Especially when Kakashi had been so vehemently opposed to the idea.

"Is Naruto out again tonight?" Kakashi asked as he got ready to head out for the evening himself.

"Mm. The kid's good."

"He is," Kakashi agreed with a sigh. "I was hoping to catch him before I took the others out again. I wanted to see how he's doing. Have you talked to him about the dangers of seals yet?"

"We don't just sit around twiddling our thumbs all day you know," Jiraiya replied mildly.

"No, I know," Kakashi said. They both looked up as the door opened, and none other than Naruto himself came in. He paused when he caught sight of Kakashi, which Jiraiya thought odd.

"Well?" Jiraiya asked him, and Naruto seemed to come back into himself all at once.

"A few fisherman, then lots of bars," Naruto replied. "They seem to be the only business left on the island. But I found company that lent me a sympathetic ear in all of them."

"Good," Jiraiya said. "What about the seal structure?"

"… It's coming," Naruto said, looking away.

"Oh? Do you want me to look over what you've come up with so far?" Jiraiya offered, making sure to pitch his tone as supportive instead of the amused he really was.

"No, no, that's alright," Naruto protested. "I can work it out. Really. But… well…"

Jiraiya raised his eyebrows and motioned with his hand for Naruto to spit it out.

"Maybe it would help if I understood more about how the bridge was being built," Naruto admitted, shoulders drooping. "There are too many parts to it, and I don't know what's really important and what's, you know, not. So… do you think I can go with them tomorrow? To work on the bridge, I mean?"

"Fine, fine," Jiraiya said with a shrug. "This is the most important part of the mission, you know. So make sure you impress me, genius."

Naruto slumped down further, and Jiraiya worked to suppress his smile.

"Right," Naruto said. "I'll just… go work on it some more."

He trudged out, the very picture of dejection. Jiraiya chuckled as the door slammed behind him.

"What was that all about?" Kakashi asked, clearly curious.

"I was surprised to hear you'd changed your mind on giving Naruto to me as an apprentice," Jiraiya said instead of answering.

Kakashi's eyes snapped sharply to him.

"I haven't," Kakashi said.

"Oh? Well, you may want to clarify that with the brat, because he sure thinks that's what's happening."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto walked through the small house, carefully controlling his every movement for fear that if he didn't, he'd wind up destroying something. And not stopping.

He was screwing up the mission. He was losing his chance to get a new teacher. And Kakashi hadn't even bothered to acknowledge him once. His life was falling apart around him, and he had no idea what to do to fix it.

So instead of destroying Tsunami's home, Naruto decided to leave. He'd hoped to catch some dinner before heading back out, but if it meant avoiding his entire team for the rest of the evening, he was fine with going hungry. It wasn't like he didn't have experience with that, anyway. As he stepped outside, he cursed himself, seeing Sasuke and Sakura, clearly waiting there for Kakashi.

Naruto turned, trying to duck back into the house, but was blocked by Sasuke and Sakura.

"What's wrong with you?" Sakura asked, stepping in front of the door so he couldn't pass without moving her.

"Look, let's just leave it," Naruto tried. "We both have things we need to do tonight."

"I've barely even seen you in days," Sakura said.

"Yeah? Well it's for the best." Naruto kicked a bit at a lump of dirt. And at least she wasn't following him around to make sure he didn't steal anything like his _other_ former teammate.

"What the hell, Naruto?" Sasuke demanded. Which was more than he'd said to him the past two days combined.

Naruto just gave him that implacable look.

"What!" Sasuke yelled.

"You guys are such assholes," Naruto said derisively, unable to hold it back any longer.

Sasuke's fist rammed into his jaw with enough force that his head snapped back.

"Fuck you," Naruto said as he rubbed at it and spit out a mouthful of blood.

"Sasuke," Sakura scolded, reaching out a hand covered in green medical chakra to Naruto's jaw. "Here, let me…"

Naruto slapped her hand away. She stared at him, her mouth opened in shock and her brows drawn together in confusion.

"Look, I get it, ok? You guys are done with me. You don't have to make believe anymore that you ever actually wanted me around. You've made it clear you don't want me, and you don't trust me, so fine. Same goes. Kakashi's found me a new sensei, which I suppose is more than I should have hoped for. So you guys can go fuck off and leave the dirty little thief to his gutter," Naruto said viciously, letting his anger at their betrayal lash out. "I'm sure you wish I'd never sullied your presence in the first place, but you won't have to worry about that much longer."

And he was gone, leaving Sakura and Sasuke to gape after him.

Then Kakashi was there. And was clearly frustrated and annoyed. Which, given his usual lackadaisical nature and the stoicism he showed the rest of the time, was more than enough to throw Sasuke and Sakura even further off-kilter.

"Put it out of your mind for now," Kakashi ordered. "This is one of the most difficult yet most important things you'll learn as ninja—the mission comes first, and personal problems must be put aside until you're through. We will deal with this when the mission is over. And we will deal with it. Now let's go."

Then Kakashi did his best to follow his own advice. No matter how much he wanted to go after him.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It was morning when Naruto had finally cooled off and come back to Tsunami's house. And then he'd immediately begun crafting experimental seals for his assignment from Jiraiya. And completely wrecking them.

"Dammit," he muttered as the third one in a row exploded, getting more and more frustrated with himself. Because if he started screwing up seal spreads, Jiraiya would have no incentive to take him on as a student. And with Kakashi not wanting him anymore, that would leave him back where he started—alone, with no teachers, no friends, no one at all.

"Dammit," Naruto yelled, slamming his fist into the ground. He gleefully set the remnants of the seal paper on fire.

He wasn't sure why the idea of being alone again was so disturbing to him. He'd done it before, and he could do it again. He just… he found he didn't want to. He _liked_ the closeness he'd developed with his team, and the thought of it being taken away…

Naruto forced himself to stop.

It was over and done with, and wishing things were different wouldn't make it so. And besides, the rapport among them must have been an imagined thing. Because if they'd really cared for him as much as he had for them, wouldn't they have accepted where he came from?

He sighed and rubbed his eyes in frustration as another seal caught on fire. This time accidentally.

"Fuck," he muttered, clearing the disaster away and getting a fresh paper to start over cleanly.

Then he heard the sounds of people outside the house, and knew his team—_no, _he told himself, _Kakashi's team_—was coming back.

And he'd have to spend the day with Sasuke and Sakura if he wanted to see the bridge building in action. Which he _had_ to if he had any hope of figuring out what to do with the whole seal problem.

With how he'd left things last night, he didn't hold much hope of it being a smooth day.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi wasn't sure where it had all gone wrong. They'd left Konoha one of the tightest teams he'd seen in a long, long while. And now, less than two months later, they were splintered almost beyond recognition.

Of course, it didn't help that one of them had been holed up working with Jiraiya. No matter how glad he was the man was taking time to work with Naruto on his sealing, and no matter that it was his own idea in the first place, it was annoying that Naruto was gone from the team so often.

And it had put a rather unfortunate crimp into his tentative plan to tie his kids together and lock them in a room until they'd worked it all out.

So he was surprised when Naruto walked into Tsunami's house as they were all eating breakfast.

"Naruto, you're back," Sakura said, voice cautiously happy.

"I need to go to the bridge with you today," he said, not looking at any of them. "Jiraiya said it was alright. I'll meet you out front when you leave."

Kakashi frowned. "Sit and have breakfast with us."

Naruto scoffed, turning back towards the door. "I have things to do."

"And right now, that's sitting with your team and eating dinner." Kakashi's tone left no room for argument. When Naruto's back straightened incrementally, he knew he'd made his point clear.

"Team?" Naruto asked, still facing the door. "Team?" His voice was low and angry. And bitter. Kakashi had never heard someone so young sound so bitter. "You've all made it clear I'm not a member of your team. So fuck you."

"That's not…" "You're a…" Sakura and Sasuke had both stood and started to yell.

But Kakashi had had enough.

"Stop. Sit. Do not speak. This is an order." Kakashi turned to his other two students. "You, too." They looked from Kakashi to Naruto and back again, then sat.

"We're going to fix this right now," Kakashi said. "I don't know where you got the idea that you aren't a member of this team anymore, but you're mine."

"Bullshit," Naruto called. "You've all three of you made it clear you don't want me anymore, not after finding out I'm an Akasenko. So don't try to pretend otherwise."

"I don't give a shit that that you're from the red light district," Sasuke cut in. "I care that you _never told us._ You never tell us anything."

"There's nothing about me that's worth knowing," Naruto responded, voice harsh and rough. "I've been a thief and a conman and a smuggler and most else you can think of, because I grew up in the Akasen with nothing and nobody, and had to fight for every fucking thing I've ever needed. And I'm not sorry for who I am or where I'm from or what I've done, because I fucking survived it and that's more than others can say. But that doesn't make any of it anything I'm proud of, or anything I wanted any of you to know. Because, fuck me, but I wanted people to actually want me around for once, and not think I'm just some shit clinging to their shoes because of where I came from."

His breathing was uneven, and his eyes narrowed and hard when he'd finished even as he watched their reactions.

"I told you I don't care about that," Sasuke said. "I couldn't give a flying fuck if you're the son of a whore or the Fourth Hokage himself."

"Yeah, sure," Naruto scoffed. "That's why as soon as you found out you started watching me to make sure I didn't touch the silver, and everyone else started ignoring me, and leaving me behind, and giving me _those _looks. That's why Kakashi pawned me off on Jiraiya as soon as he could. No, _none_ of you care _anything_ about that_._"

Kakashi wondered how this all could have gotten so fucked up. He was about to interject when Sakura spoke for the first time.

"Naruto," Sakura started, only to be cut off when Sasuke's fist connected with Naruto's jaw. Naruto spit, and Kakashi saw blood. Then he turned his head back and worked his jaw as his eyes stayed on Sasuke.

"You fucking asshole," Sasuke yelled, losing control of his voice along with his temper. "It wasn't about that. It was _never _about that. I care that I've told you everything I am, and that you've kept so many secrets I don't think I even know who you are. It was about you telling me you believed in me, that you believed I could accomplish my goal, and then telling me I couldn't even walk down the street without you fucking holding my hand, you jackass."

Naruto gaped.

"That's… I didn't…"

"That's _exactly_ what you did," Sasuke said viciously. "And I wasn't watching you so you didn't steal anything, I was trying to fucking be there for you so you'd know I didn't care about the whole red light district thing, and so you'd know you could talk to me about the rest of your fucking secrets, you idiot."

Naruto was frozen in place, jaw slightly dropped in shock as he stared at them all with a poleaxed look on his face. Kakashi wondered whether it was time for him to step in or not, before things imploded even further to the point where there might be no return. But then… this could turn out for the best, he thought. Like the lancing of a wound, letting everything come out in the open. So he waited for one heartbeat, then two. And then Naruto began to speak.

"I'm not good at much," Naruto said, looking down and away, voice soft enough they had to strain to hear. "My taijutsu is still screwed up from what Mizuki did, my genjutsu is even more non-existent than my chakra control, and it takes me ages to learn most ninjutsu. And you guys… you're smart. And you're good. You're gonna go on and be Jounin, and then the next legends of the shinobi world. Fuuinjutsu and my experience with the shady side of life are really just about all I have to offer, I know that. And I know this is just about as far as I'll ever get. If I'm lucky, I'll sneak through to Chuunin, but I'm realistic about my chances for even that."

"Naruto…" Sakura reached a hand out for him, but Naruto didn't even look up.

"I know you're both capable. Fuck, you're better than I am in every way you can be. But you're the only thing I've ever had that's close to a family, and I know the Akasen and everything goes on in it better than anyone would ever want to, and I wanted to keep you safe from it and out of it. And… even if you hate me for it, I'd do it again. Because yeah, either of you could take on any of the yaks or the other fuckers who live there no problem one on one. Even ten on one. Even a _hundred_ on one. But that shit shouldn't even touch you, shouldn't _ever _touch you."

There was a period of silence then, as Sasuke and Sakura both watched him without any idea of what to say. Kakashi couldn't blame them. He didn't even know what to think.

"So I'm sorry you're upset about that. But I guess," Naruto said, turning all the way away to face the door. "I guess we won't have to worry about any of that anymore. You won't have to deal with me again after this. I'm… Jiraiya-sama is being generous enough to take me on for a while, so you'll just… you'll be able to move on. For what it's worth, I'll miss you. I'll just… I'll go now. I have to get that fucking seal done, and…"

He didn't get three steps towards the door before he was tackled by Sasuke and Sakura both.

"You don't get to say things like that and then leave," Sakura was saying, smacking his arm with one hand even as her other gripped him tightly enough to leave bruises.

"You don't get to leave at all," Sasuke agreed. "I'm mad… was mad… fuck, you make me crazy, but that doesn't mean you fucking run away, dobe."

"Mou, they're right, you know," Kakashi said, crouching down in front of the pile of them and looking Naruto in the eye. "I told you, you're mine. And you'll stay mine—all of you: you, Sasuke, and Sakura—until I see you made Chuunin or we die in the process."

Naruto looked bewildered, clearly taken aback and uncertain as to what was going on. Or even if it was real. Kakashi made no move to speed him up, letting him work through whatever it was he needed to work through at his own pace. And, he thought, having Sakura and Sasuke physically restraining him didn't hurt, either.

"I don't understand," Naruto finally said. Kakashi knew the feeling. "How could you say that? You gave me to Jiraiya-sensei."

"I did no such thing," Kakashi disagreed.

"You did!" Naruto protested, voice vicious even as Kakashi saw his eyes growing wet. "You told me I was assigned to him from now on, and you've been leaving me behind when you go with the team to do anything, and Jiraiya said you wanted him to teach me."

Kakashi rubbed his eye, wondering just how things could have gotten so mixed-up, even as Sasuke and Sakura began glaring at him.

"This is a complex mission with a lot of components to it. You're better suited than Sasuke or Sakura to the parts Jiraiya is taking the lead on, which means while they help me, you're helping Jiraiya. So yes, I have been leaving you with Jiraiya and you are reporting to him. If Sasuke or Sakura had been better suited to it, I would have had them reporting to Jiraiya instead for the duration of the mission," Kakashi told him. "And Jiraiya is one of the world's foremost fuuinjutsu masters. I wanted him to talk to you about sealing, because you've already passed me by and I didn't want you blowing yourself up or stagnating because of my shortcomings as a teacher. But I made it clear to him that if he tried to take you from me and make you his apprentice before you made Chuunin, I'd rip his arms off and beat him unconscious with them."

After a few moments of staring at him in shock and disbelief, Naruto seemed to suddenly just collapse in on himself, going limp and boneless even as he buried his face in Sakura's neck.

"I thought you didn't want me anymore," Naruto was saying, voice soft and smothered enough he almost couldn't make out the words. "I thought… I thought none of you wanted me."

And Kakashi somehow found himself in the middle of the pile, holding them all even as Sasuke and Sakura wrapped themselves around a desperately clinging Naruto.

"Baka," Sakura said, crying herself as she smoothed Naruto's hair. "You're ours."

"Ours," Sasuke agreed. "Forever."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi was a good shinobi. He was a _very _good shinobi. He was, in fact, a shinobi so excellent very few could say they were his equal.

Which was why, instead of comforting and soothing his kids as he'd found himself wanting to (much to his own surprise), he was instead on his way to kill a man. A task he was probably both better at and more suited for than cosseting children. He wasn't sure what that said about him.

No, he did. It said he was a very good shinobi.

They'd gotten word that the Fire Daimyo's people weren't far off, and things had to be ready for them when they arrived, regardless of the personal state of the shinobi assigned to carry that out.

Which meant Gato had to die, not only to get him out of the way, but also so that Wave was tipped into just this side of chaos leaving just enough time for everyone to begin panicking but not enough time for anyone to suggest a solution. Then, when the Fire Daimyo's men arrived, they could graciously solve all of the problems, earning Wave's undying gratitude. At least, that was the plan.

So it was time for Gato to die. Which meant it was time for Kakashi to go to work.

He sighed, taking care to be invisible as he slipped through Wave towards Gato's floating fortress. Probably an unnecessary precaution since they had confirmed Momochi Zabuza and the rest of the missing nin Gato had hired had long since fled and the only ones left to guard him were what could optimistically be called mercenaries but would more accurately be described as idiots with weapons and delusions of grandeur. But even so, his sensei had been strict about not slacking, even on the easy jobs, so he made sure not to be seen.

Still, it was child's play for him to slink inside the ship that served as Gato's headquarters. Not a single one of the hired hands had a lick of chakra and they had even less sense. He was tempted to use a genjutsu that would let him walk right through their midst—it would be so much faster and Kakashi was eager to get back to his kids—but there was always the tiniest possibility one of the guards wouldn't be caught by it.

He estimated that possibility to be less than .001%, but just grit his teeth as his sensei's voice about bad habits killing good shinobi looped through his mind and kept him from speeding this up.

When the coast was finally—_finally—_clear, he flew over the side of the ship and headed straight to Gato's office. The man was an idiot to have an office with so many windows when so many people wanted him dead, and even more foolish to have one of them open, but Kakashi wasn't going to complain about somebody making his job easier.

He fingered the knife (which was not a kunai; they were going for subtle here, after all), measuring its weight one last time as he waited for Gato to get into position instead of wandering around his office. It wasn't designed to be thrown, but that hardly mattered, and they wanted the slightly rusted switchblade as a prop more than they cared about how easily Kakashi could kill a man with it.

Kakashi could kill a man with almost anything, anyway.

Except maybe a tissue.

Of course, he hadn't tried yet.

Then the mark took a folder back to his desk, sat in his chair and tipped back in it, perhaps to consider some bit of information in the file he'd just retrieved. Kakashi didn't much care, except that it put him in the optimum positioning for termination. He pinched the blade between his fingers then let it fly.

It struck true, not quite hitting his heart since a direct score would be far too suspicious (or would have been if anyone in the surrounding area had any deductive capabilities left that hadn't been beaten out by fear or sheer brutality, but then he heard his sensei scold him about bad habits killing good shinobi again, and just went with it). So instead it pierced his chest too far up and too far right, where it would instead cut through a few of the arteries.

It wouldn't kill him quite as cleanly or quickly, but it was close.

Blood spurted as the heart continued to beat. The target's hands jerked, whether reflexes or an attempt to clutch the knife, he wasn't sure.

Kakashi watched it all with jaded eyes that had seen it a hundred times before, and waited for his mark to finish bleeding out so he'd be certain the man was dead. It wouldn't do to walk away only to find out later someone had performed a miracle rescue of his target. Talk about embarrassing. And he was sure all the other assassins would make fun of him.

When the blood stopped pooling under the table and his mark hadn't drawn a breath for a count of a hundred of his own, Kakashi bypassed the (now pointless) security and headed back to his kids.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sasuke watched as Naruto flitted around the bridge, somehow everywhere at once without even using shadow clones to help him. His own attention should have been on the client, of course, and watching the surrounding area to make sure there weren't hostile elements creeping up on them to take out the client in the eleventh hour. And he tried. Really. But there hadn't been even a hint of a threat for the entire time they'd been guarding the bridge builder. And Naruto, with his red rimmed eyes, was a much more compelling subject to watch than the empty span of trees behind him.

Sasuke refused to admit his own eyes might match. Though, if pressed, he would rather own up to that then his thoughts that Sakura's red eyes clashed horribly with both her red dress and her pink hair. The former would only dent his pride, after all. Sakura would dent his head.

Or "accidentally" burn off his eyebrows when she practiced medical jutsu on him.

Again.

He caught sight of Naruto looking back at him, and realized his dereliction had been noted. He jerked his eyes away, back to the tree line.

Naruto, he knew, was still keeping secrets. But at the end of the day, a reticent Naruto was better than no Naruto at all. So he just had to wait. Because the only no Naruto at all option had come far too close to being reality for comfort.

The soft pops and puffing sound of Naruto creating clones grabbed his attention back to his teammate, who was much closer than he'd been a few moments before. But, then, Naruto always had been surprisingly good at stealth. The clones began swarming the bridge, painting seals on every surface imaginable (and a handful of splashes told Sasuke that that included places hidden by the channel). More continued Naruto's quest to ask everything that came into his head of everyone on the bridge all at the same time. Yet more clones, he saw, were working on actual construction. He smirked as he saw a Naruto fall face first into freshly poured concrete, legs and arms flailing in an attempt to get himself out of it before another Naruto whacked him with a hoe and proceeded to smooth out the Naruto shaped indentation.

Sasuke was relatively sure the Naruto who plopped down next to him was the real Naruto. Then again, Naruto's clones had been known to get bored and fool around. So, really, it was for the good of their mission that he make sure…

"Mother fucker!" Naruto shouted loudly enough all work stopped long enough for everyone to turn and stare at them. "What was that for?" Naruto rubbed his head where Sasuke's fist had aided in the efficiency of the mission.

"Making sure you're not a clone," he said with a shrug.

"… That excuse is _so _wearing thin," Naruto muttered.

"Aw, then we'll just have to come up with some other way to show you we care," Sakura teased, sitting next to him and dangling her feet off the edge of the bridge. Sasuke snorted.

"I thought you were working on a seal structure for Jiraiya-sama," Sasuke pointed out, changing the subject far away from any mention of demonstrating emotions.

Naruto just groaned and laid back, throwing his arm over his eyes. Sakura poked him in response.

"Can't you see I'm in agony here?" Naruto lamented.

"Really?" Sakura asked, far more cheerfully than was entirely appropriate. "What hurts? I'm sure I can fix it." Sasuke edged away. Dammit his eyebrows had _just_ finished growing in and he knew—_knew_—Naruto was somehow going to get out of this and then she'd turn on him and…

"Um, not that kind of agony, Sakura." Naruto peeked out from under his arm, but Sasuke noted he kept it positioned to strategically defend his eyebrows. He nodded in approval. Smart man.

"Oh." Sakura deflated in disappointment as the green chakra she'd gathered in her hand dissipated. Sasuke sighed in relief.

"Well, if it isn't medical, then you just have to talk about it," Sakura pronounced. "Right Sasuke?" Sasuke just blinked in response, not quite willing to disagree. Because, really, if it had been up to Sasuke, he would just grunt at Naruto in acknowledgement of his presence, then wait for him to finish his brood. With the reserve option of kicking him off the bridge if he got too annoying. Watching him take a 50 foot plunge into choppy water would certainly elevate at least one of their moods.

"Right," Sakura agreed with herself for him. "So spill it."

When she poked his ribs again, Naruto snatched at her wrist and pulled, somehow managing to twist enough to knock the three of them all to the ground. Sasuke made certain his knee found its way to Naruto's kidneys, and that he didn't come anywhere close to pulling Sakura's hair. She got _mean_ when her hair was pulled.

After they'd horsed around long enough to be out of breath, they came to a mutual truce and laid in a tangled pile as they panted.

"So, I'm not a genius," Naruto said, as though he were admitting some horrible sin.

"This is news?" Sasuke asked.

"Sasuke, be nice!" Sakura scolded. Naruto just snorted in amusement.

"It's just, with everything Kaka-sensei said about my seals, I thought maybe I really was good." Naruto sighed.

"Don't be an idiot," Sasuke said. "You're a prodigy and you know it."

"But I'm _not,_" Naruto insisted. "Jiraiya gave me this assignment, right? And he keeps saying that if I'm really as good as all that, I could do it. But I _can't._" He sounded so agonized over that last bit, Sasuke decided Jiraiya was now officially on his list. Not _The_ List (because, as far as he knew, Jiraiya hadn't killed off Naruto's entire clan and then used a genjutsu on him to force him to relive it). But Jiraiya did make it on the List (one step down from _The _List), the one that included the child welfare official who had accepted a bribe to place Sasuke with a family he hated, the patriarch who'd paid the bribe, and the official who had signed off on the plans to demolish the Uchiha district without his consent. Among others.

"Well what does that Jiraiya bum know anyway," Sakura demanded. "He's just a drunken letch who didn't even bother to help you at _all_ so how dare he try to judge. And besides, our Sensei knows what he's talking about, and if he says you're brilliant, you're brilliant. And if that Jiraiya disagrees, then obviously it's because there's something wrong with _him_, and…" She trailed off of her rant as Naruto pressed his face into her stomach to muffle his laughter.

"Hey, this is no laughing matter," Sakura scolded him. "I'm being perfectly serious here, Naruto. Naruto!" She smacked his shoulder, trying to get him to stop laughing. But she was smiling as she did it.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto had decided that he had to tell Jiraiya that night. There was no point putting it off any further, not now that the bridge was almost finished. Not now that he'd come to the conclusion that he'd failed utterly and completely.

He'd waited until they'd finished eating dinner, in the hopes that Kakashi and Sasuke and especially Sakura would all head off somewhere—_anywhere_—so he could let Jiraiya berate him in private. Because this would be humiliating enough without their presence. And because he was a little worried Sakura would try to kill Jiraiya, and that Sasuke might not hold her back.

Of course, Jiraiya wasn't aware of any of this, and so of course he ruined Naruto's carefully constructed fantasy of how this would all play out.

"So tell me, genius," Jiraiya said, pouring himself a drink as he sprawled over two chairs in Tsunami's dining room. "Are you ready to apply the seals to the bridge yet?"

Naruto bit his lip. Getting Jiraiya's approval didn't matter nearly as much as it had before. Not now that he knew he still had his team. But he still wanted it—still wanted to be good enough to deserve it. And failing was galling enough without that added disappointment.

"I've already applied modified durability seals that should make the bridge last at least ten times longer than it would have otherwise, given normal wear and tear…"

"I don't care about that." He waved it away with his saucer of sake. "What about protecting it from assaults? You're supposed to be the greatest thing since the ink stick. Where's my seal structure?"

Naruto paused for a moment, considering his reply. Failing still hurt, no matter that he had people to fall back on. It hurt enough that he didn't notice Kakashi sitting up and setting down his saucer of sake to give Jiraiya a heated stare.

"I can't do it," he admitted. "I tried to come up with something that would make it indestructible, that would keep it safe from any possible attack. But there were too many ways you can destroy a bridge. I was able to come up with something that would work against general explosives and lightning based attacks and fires, but then what the hell are you supposed to do to keep a bridge standing if someone summons a wave big enough to knock the whole thing down? Or what if someone made the seabed soft enough to sink the whole damn thing?"

Naruto shook his head in disgust. Kakashi's eye narrowed dangerously at Jiraiya. He could think of another dozen ways to destroy the bridge just off the top of his head.

"It's impossible," Naruto said, then paused. "And besides, it was unreasonable to ask it in the first place." He nodded, as though to say, 'so there,' and crossed his arms in front of him. Kakashi agreed. It was an entirely unreasonable request, especially given that Jiraiya hadn't involved himself in the project at all.

"It's not unreasonable. You just need to work harder at it," Jiraiya complained. "If you really were a genius, you could figure it out."

Kakashi's hands twitched, eager to defend his student. The only thing that stayed them was the fact that shinobi were often given unreasonable demands, and this could be a good lesson. That _didn't _mean he wasn't planning on telling Jiraiya _exactly_ what he thought of this whole thing as soon as they were alone.

"I'm telling you it can't be done," Naruto argued. "There are so many factors involve it's impossible."

"Are you certain?" Jiraiya arched a brow in question, lazily sipping at his sake.

Naruto nodded once, definitively, then looked away.

"Yes. Call me a failure or whatever, but this can't be done."

"Good." It was Jiraiya's turn to nod as he set his saucer down with a light click.

Naruto's head snapped back to Jiraiya at that. "… What?"

Kakashi's mind was racing through similar thoughts and coming to his own conclusions.

"I'm glad you came to that conclusion," Jiraiya said. "You came up with the right answer to the problem I gave you."

"… Seriously," Naruto said. "What the fuck?"

Sakura and Sasuke looked equally stupefied by Jiraiya's pronouncement.

"You're good, kid. I knew that as soon as I saw that message tube you came up with. When you showed me the rest you've been working on… well, you've got talent," Jiraiya explained. "Enough you'll likely be able to do more with seals than anyone's ever thought possible."

"And this somehow explains why you set me up to fail?" Naruto demanded.

"I set you up to realize that not everything can be done with seals, no matter how good you are," Jiraiya corrected.

_No, you set him up for a good, hard mind fuck,_ Kakashi corrected mentally.

"You… argh!" Naruto yelled. "Do you have any idea how many hours I spent busting my ass trying to figure that shit out?"

"Oh, likely enough that you'll remember the lesson." Jiraiya was smiling as he said it. Naruto thought he hated him just then.

"You really are a bastard."

Jiraiya smiled and poured himself another saucer. "And just think, I'll be following you all the way back to Konoha. If you're lucky, I may even teach you a thing or two."

Naruto looked at him in horror, then his head thunked on the table. Jiraiya only grinned more broadly.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo


	6. Chapter 6

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin **

_**by May Wren**_

**Chapter Six**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Back in Konoha, Kakashi found he didn't have much of a report left to give, since most of it had already been sent to the Hokage through Naruto's messenger tube. So it didn't take him long to pass along the few remaining details once they'd returned to Konoha.

"Thank you," the old Hokage said, nodding as Kakashi finished. "You did exceptional work. Although, I must ask, the Great Naruto Bridge?"

"Ah, well, you see," Kakashi said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, trying to think of a way to explain just how the bridge had come to be named after Naruto when he himself wasn't too clear on anything other than the villagers getting wind of Naruto's massive use of kage bunshin on the bridge during their last week there, and Sasuke and Sakura wanting to make amends with Naruto. And thinking that it was hilarious that another monument would be named after him. The Hokage just raised an eyebrow at him.

"Er, you had to have been there, I guess," he finally said.

"This is becoming quite a habit," the Hokage said mildly. "It isn't often a genin has a single major monument named in their honor, much less two."

Kakashi laughed nervously.

"Nevertheless, I'll note a commendation in all of your files for your team's work. It's extraordinary such a rookie genin team could accomplish so much," he said. "Now we need to discuss one of your students."

"Yes," Kakashi agreed. "I need to know everything you do about Naruto."

Kakashi noted the small signs of the Hokage's surprise, and wondered who he'd thought they were going to talk about.

"Ah. Yes, Naruto," the Hokage said, steepling his hands in front of him. "Unfortunately, the fact is that I do not know much."

"But how can that be?" Kakashi asked, taken aback by the answer. The Third sighed and turned to look out the window.

"When Naruto was a very young child—just a toddler, in fact—he was removed from the orphanage," the Hokage told him. "I was not informed until at least a week had passed, and I have still been unable to determine exactly who removed him and how." He must have seen the skepticism Kakashi felt. "That doesn't mean there weren't consequences. Not knowing precisely who was involved didn't stop me from demonstrating my displeasure to everyone who might have been involved, through either action or inaction. And believe me, I was _very _displeased."

Kakashi's nodded. The Third may have appeared to be grandfatherly, but then, he was one of the best shinobi to ever live and had no issue with exploiting people's perceptions of him.

That someone might have been good enough to pull one over on the Third was difficult to comprehend, but it made slightly more sense to Kakashi that Naruto had somehow wound up in the Akasen when he knew that the Hokage hadn't been able to locate him. It had been incomprehensible to Kakashi that Naruto would grow up as he had if the Hokage truly had been watching over his shoulder, as Kakashi had always imagined.

"I didn't see him again until he showed up here one day quite at random to gain the necessary permission to apply for the Academy's preparatory school," the Third explained. "I approved it, of course, and the boy was gone again before I could make too many inquiries of him. Since then, on the few occasions I've had to see the boy, whenever I broach the topic Naruto manages to change the subject and then seems to disappear completely, from both my office and Konoha as a whole."

Kakashi tried to take in what the Third was telling him. He'd seen Naruto's disappearing act personally, so part of the tale he knew could be true. And he could imagine Naruto keeping secrets from the Hokage without too much difficulty; he was remarkably cagey and tight-lipped when he wanted to be.

But the rest of it… he found it difficult to believe that the Hokage would allow the container of the Nine-Tailed Fox to go missing for any length of time. The Academy started at eight, and the prep school was a year before that, so if the Hokage were telling him the truth, Naruto would have been missing for four or five years. Konoha just wasn't big enough for Kakashi to swallow that easily.

There was more to this story. The Hokage just didn't want to share.

"I tell you all of this in the strictest confidence, you understand," the Hokage said.

"Of course," Kakashi agreed. Especially since the Hokage had told him much less that might be of any use than Naruto himself had shared. "There was one more thing. He wants to tell his teammates."

The Hokage blinked in surprise. "About his burden?" the Hokage clarified. When Kakashi nodded, the Hokage put his hand on his chin, stroking his beard in thought.

"They're good kids," Kakashi said. "They won't do anything potentially dangerous with the knowledge. I would impress upon them the importance of that." He didn't bother with the arguments about it being Naruto's right to tell his friends, or that he deserved the opportunity to share it with the people he cared about. Such arguments, he knew, wouldn't sway the Hokage on a matter of Village Security.

"This requires thought. I will consider the matter. Until then, it remains an S-class secret. Do you understand?"

And Kakashi knew he meant, 'do you understand you must tell Naruto no until I say otherwise?'

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Kakashi demurred.

"Good," the Hokage said. "Then for now, I'll only say this: I am old, Kakashi, and had I a successor, I would certainly allow this decision to be his, as the repercussions would mostly fall onto his shoulders."

Kakashi slouched a bit, displeased by the implication. It wasn't even close to the first time the Hokage had brought up with him the idea of becoming his successor. If it had been, he doubted Danzo would ever have cared enough about him to start those rumors. But it was the first time he'd added a carrot and a stick to the offer. Because at the same time he was implying he would allow Kakashi to make the call once he accepted the position, he was also hinting that he could hold out from making any decision at all until Kakashi accepted.

Kakashi was reasonably certain he had no desire at all to become Hokage, so that could be a rather long wait.

"I see," was all Kakashi said. As upset as he was over the Hokage's initial evasion of his questions combined with the anger that the Hokage was willing to use his kids to manipulate him, he had a very great deal more he _could _have said already perched on the tip of his tongue, but he forced it to stay there. The Hokage was remarkably tolerant when compared to the Kage's of the other great nations, but some of the things Kakashi wanted to say would likely push even Sarutobi's renowned patience.

The Hokage nodded, then changed the topic. "Then let us continue. Naruto wasn't the student I wanted to discuss."

"Oh? Then who was?" Kakashi asked curiously, putting everything else out of his mind for the moment. It wasn't doing him any good there at the moment, anyway.

"Haruno Sakura," the Hokage said. "I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"That's a horrible thing to say," she whispered. "You're lying."

"Sakura," Kakashi said. "I wish I were."

"No. No, it can't be true," she said, voice beginning to rise with panic. "My parents aren't dead. They're not!"

"A patrol found them on their way back from Ippana. Their entire caravan died along with the team hired to guard them." Kakashi thought it better to give her all of the facts at once then to piecemeal the information and create a new blow with each new fact.

The tears began streaming down Sakura's face as the shock began to wear a bit off and reality began to set in. She collapsed forward, and Kakashi caught her and held her in his lap, offering what small comfort he could.

"I'm so sorry, Sakura," Kakashi murmured as he stroked her back, letting her cry herself out against him.

It was a few minutes later when Naruto and Sasuke came back from where he'd sent them off so he could tell her the news in privacy. Their eyes immediately snapped to Kakashi, silently asking what had happened. He tilted his head to the file lying on the table, and the boys quickly skimmed through it.

He knew the moment they saw it—their bodies tensed and they looked first to each other, then to him and Sakura. The boys immediately rushed over, and Kakashi found himself with three 12-year olds practically sitting in his lap.

"Th-they're gone," Sakura managed through her tears. "Mama and Papa. They're g-gone." Naruto rubbed her back and squeezed Sasuke and Kakashi, obviously unsure of what else to do. Kakashi silently wished him luck in figuring it out, because he himself had no clue.

"We'll take care of you, Sakura-chan," Sasuke murmured softly. "We've got you. You're not alone. Remember that. No matter what, you're not alone."

When Sakura finally fell asleep, Kakashi and the boys continued to sit there for a few minutes before Naruto disentangled himself. Kakashi was more than a little surprised when Sasuke made no move to do the same—the boy was pricklier than a thorn bush at times, and physical touch was always a difficult issue for him. But for the moment anyway, he seemed content to stay tucked against Kakashi's side, curled into Sakura and Kakashi both.

Naruto picked up the file he and Sasuke had skimmed earlier, and Kakashi knew he was committing it to memory.

"The report says they were just regular bandits." Naruto didn't look up from the file as he took care to speak softly enough to not wake Sakura. "Even a weak genin team would have been able to fight off bandits. Or at least their Jounin sensei should have. So why didn't they hire one? They've done this route for years, they knew the dangers."

"They did," Kakashi said. Naruto raised an eyebrow and turned to the end of the report where the mission was listed.

"There's no way this could have been bandits, right?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi nodded his agreement, but didn't have any answers.

"I want to see this ambush site," Naruto said.

"Sakura-chan can't stay alone tonight," Sasuke said. Naruto shook his head in agreement.

"Don't think you're going alone," Sasuke warned.

"Don't think either of you are going anywhere tonight," Kakashi countered. He had a violent need to get all of his kids back somewhere safe and keep a very close watch over them.

"I want all of you to bunk with me tonight," Kakashi said, nudging Sasuke to move so he could get up. Then he stood, carrying the sleeping Sakura against his chest, and motioned the boys to take the file and Sakura's equipment and began heading towards his apartment.

"Well, the real us will," Naruto said as though that were obvious. "Of course we're staying with Sakura-chan. But that doesn't mean we can't still check out the ambush site."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, silently asking how Naruto planned to stay with Sakura and go scout the location her parents had died at the same time.

"Onigiri bunshin?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded.

"You'll come, too, right Kaka-sensei?" Naruto asked, tugging at his Jounin vest as he looked up at him with a hint of uncertainty playing across his face.

Kakashi rapidly analyzed the pros and cons of going with them versus ordering them to stay. They _should_ stay. They weren't authorized to leave the village for this. They were all tired, and they were unlikely to find anything the ANBU hadn't noted in their report. And Sakura needed them. But… Naruto was absolutely right about the inconsistency of saying simple bandits had been able to take down a Jounin and his genin team. And Kakashi really did want to see the ambush site. And, if he ordered them to stay, he wasn't certain he wanted to test whether they would or not.

"I'll go," Kakashi confirmed. Naruto nodded and pulled out two sets of seals. From where, Kakashi wasn't certain, but he'd stopped being surprised when Naruto popped seals out of what seemed like thin air.

Sasuke hiked up his shirt and turned, letting Naruto place one of the seals on the small of his back then swipe it with a sliced, bloody finger. Moments later, another Sasuke was in the room.

"Your turn, Sensei," Naruto offered.

"I can make my own kage bunshin," he reminded the boys.

"Yeah, but, well," Naruto stammered, scratching his head. "They aren't as good, you know? What if you get hit with something?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He wasn't some green genin after all.

"Please, Sensei?" Naruto asked. And Kakashi noted that even Sasuke seemed to be watching him intently. He shrugged, supposing there was no harm in it, and nodded. Naruto repeated the process, and Kakashi shuddered at the strange sensation of a foreign non-medical chakra coursing through him, especially one that was so volatile.

"That… feels really strange," Kakashi said even as another copy of him showed up. Naruto looked away, then shrugged and tossed a seal out which shortly became a Naruto clone.

"That wasn't a criticism, Naruto," Kakashi said, wishing he had a free hand to do… something to reassure Naruto. Who had remained sensitive to any perceived disapproval and had been noticeably emotionally vulnerable even after their… (talk? meltdown? group therapy session?) …after their leaving Wave. He was glad when his clone apparently had the same thought and smoothed Naruto's hair down. Or tried to, anyway.

"You've come up with an amazing technique. But having foreign chakra invade my system is still unsettling, no matter how useful the jutsu," Kakashi said, suddenly so exhausted he could barely stand. He had three remarkable students who he had no doubt would one day be legends. But he also knew that his three remarkable students were also remarkably traumatized, each in their own way. And that they'd grow into legends only if he could get them through their adolescence.

No small feat, even for a Jounin with normal children.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were _far _from normal children.

"You three should head out," he told the clones.

"Come on," the Kakashi-copy said, and the Naruto-clone and Sasuke-clone both followed him as he melted into the shadows to sneak out of the village.

Kakashi wondered whether he should have more qualms than he did about showing two genin how to leave the village undetected, then decided that they likely would have found a way to manage it on their own anyway. The village's defenses were geared a great deal more towards keeping people out than in, after all. And, if Kakashi showed them the way, he would at least know where to start looking if they ever tried to use it on their own one day.

Then Sasuke's hand reached out and brushed the hair away from Sakura's face where it had covered her eyes as Kakashi had carried her. And he knew that, no matter what happened, so long as these kids had each other they'd turn out just fine.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

He knew they were only clones, but Kakashi couldn't help but be proud of his boys and their ability to _move_. He'd been travelling quickly, and they hadn't had any trouble keeping up. No matter how they complained, those laps around the lake had definitely been good for them. He wondered whether they'd be faster if it had been the real Sasuke and Naruto instead of their clones.

That they'd also been able to follow him out of the village without alerting any of the village's security, while equally impressive, was expected of them at this point. If it hadn't been, he never would have agreed to the outing in the first place.

He flicked his hand out, using the sign language he'd been drilling into them to let the boys know their target wasn't far away. They were there a few moments later and Kakashi frowned as he took in the remnants of the site. There were clear signs of shinobi involvement: slashes in trees from kunai, a burned spot on the ground from too much chakra in too concentrated a spot, markings in the bark on branches where shinobi sandals had tread.

"Sensei?" Sasuke said, pointing towards a shuriken stuck in a branch.

"This couldn't have been bandits, right?" Naruto asked, eyeing it.

"Couldn't have been? I wouldn't say that," Kakashi answered. "There's always a possibility things aren't as they seem. But in this case, I would say that possibility is very, very small."

That the Haruno's trading caravan had been attacked so deep within Fire's border was bad. That the genin team they'd hired as escorts hadn't been able to defend them was worse. That somehow the ANBU who'd found the site and made the report had either missed the signs that it had been shinobi who'd attacked, or had deliberately left that information out of the report was catastrophic.

"You aren't to speak of this outside of my presence, do you understand?" Kakashi ordered. They clearly didn't, but nodded anyway. And he knew that in this, they would do as he said. "Good. Now dispel yourselves."

He waited until they had, making sure they were truly gone before continuing the investigation on his own.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next morning, a pounding on the door woke them all up. Kakashi was disoriented for a moment as he took in the fact that, while he was definitely in his own bed, he had three warm lumps in bed with him. Then, as the pounding resumed, he remembered.

"Who the fuck is it," Naruto mumbled. Kakashi sighed, scooting Sakura carefully off of him and onto a pillow even as Sasuke and Naruto shifted out of his way.

"Kakashi, get your ass out here," came the voice from the other side of the door. Asuma, Kakashi recognized as he made his way to the door, running a hand over his face to make sure his mask was still in place.

"What is it," Kakashi asked as he opened the door. Asuma paused at seeing the other Jounin in such disarray—no forehead protector, no Jounin vest, no sandals, rumpled clothes, and hair every which way. Not that the last was that unusual.

"What are you doing still asleep?" Asuma demanded. "Haven't you heard about your student?"

"Which one," Kakashi asked with a sigh. Because with his kids, it could be any of them.

"Which one?" Asuma asked incredulously. "Sakura, of course. Ino has been demanding that I find her so she and her mother can look after her for a while since she doesn't have anyone else to do it."

Kakashi felt the sudden presence of his boys, one at each side. He looked down to find them both glaring at Asuma.

"What Ino wants doesn't play a factor here," Kakashi said. "Only what's best for Sakura."

"And she has plenty of others who will look after her," Naruto said.

"She has us," Sasuke said, voice tense and low.

Kakashi ended the conversation by shutting the door in Asuma's face.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sakura hadn't been able to make the funeral and memorial arrangements. As it stood, she could barely get out of bed, she was so deep into her grief. Since it had to be done, and sooner rather than later, Kakashi had decided it would be best if he took care of these things for her. He'd left her at his apartment—where all three of his kids had been staying since they'd heard the news—in the care of Naruto and Sasuke. Both of whom were showing a remarkable ability to care for their teammate. Kakashi had known they all cared for each other, he'd never questioned that, but he'd had no idea the boys could be so tender and gentle.

The Harunos, Kakashi had found, had been the type of people who had planned for everything. Including their deaths. When the attorney had approached him with a document specifying their wishes should something like this occur, he'd been enormously relieved.

It was on his way back to his apartment after settling the last of the arrangements that Ino stormed up to him, a furious glint in her eye as she was trailed by her father and Asuma. This, he knew, wasn't going to be pretty.

"Give me Sakura," Ino ordered, voice imperious and furious both. "She needs to be taken care of, and I'm not going to let anyone else do it." Kakashi didn't even acknowledge her, instead nodding tightly at Inoichi and Asuma in greeting. They simply looked uncomfortable, but didn't appear to be willing to do anything about Ino's behavior.

"Did you hear me?" Ino demanded. "Give me Sakura."

When he still didn't acknowledge her, she gave a little scream and stomped her foot.

"Asuma-sensei told me you were difficult, but this is unreal," she said, then turned to Asuma and Inoichi. Kakashi watched curiously, wondering what she would do now. "Daddy, Asuma-sensei, you always say how Kakashi is nothing but some burnt out old Jounin, so _make_ him give me Sakura. He's obviously unfit to take care of her."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and looked to the two Jounin, both of whom flushed lightly and tried to bluster out some excuse or another. And it was all just too fucking much for him deal with at the moment. One of his kids was hurting, and he had some little twerp who'd likely never left the safety of Konoha's walls accusing _him_ of being _unfit_.

Well fuck that.

"Tell me, little girl, do you know who I am?" he asked, squatting down so he was eye-level to Ino.

Ino blinked. "Of course. You're Sakura's sensei."

"Mm," Kakashi agreed. "True, true. And, as her Jounin sensei, that means that I am now her next of kin until she refiles her paperwork in the Ninja Registration Office. And that means that if you or your father or your sensei try to take her from me, I can have you all arrested and court-martialed. Were you aware of that?"

Ino just stared at him, mouth agape in clear shock.

"And believe me, little girl, if _anyone_ tries to take Sakura from me right now, there will be grave consequences indeed. Because what Sakura needs right now are the people who love her, and would do anything for her, and want what is best for her more than anything else. She doesn't need a selfish little girl trying to play at being a grownup, who wants to be seen taking care of her more than she wants to actually care for her. And Sakura doesn't need to be used as an excuse, and for you to attempt to use her grief as a ploy to get Sasuke's attention disgusts me."

"I… I…" Ino stammered.

"Now wait a second, Hatake," Inoichi tried to interrupt. Kakashi ignored him and continued to speak right over him.

"But I'm not just Sakura's sensei," he said. "Do you know what else I am?"

"A… y-you're a Jounin?" Ino offered. And, even though Kakashi's voice had never raised and he hadn't used any chakra or killing intent at all, she was clearly both frightened and entranced by him, caught between taking a step forward or a step back.

"Mm," Kakashi agreed. "And I'm something of a legend in the shinobi world, did you know that? I've been inside each and every hidden village in the elemental continent and gotten back out again, and I've been listed in every single bingo book in existence for longer than you've been alive. More than half of those books give the order to immediately retreat upon sighting me, you know, as I've slaughtered entire platoons of enemy nin without any back-up. I've spent years in ANBU, and have accepted more S-ranked missions than any two Konoha ninja before me combined ever have, and you should know that I have a perfect mission record."

"That's enough, Kakashi," Asuma said, half facing away.

"No, I wasn't finished," Kakashi said mildly. "I have seniority over both your father and your sensei, both in rank and in years of service to Konoha, little girl, yet both of them are older than I am. I've killed more, bled more, and lost more than either of them. I'm better than them, both individually and combined. And I should tell you, little girl, that if someone tried to take Sakura from me just now, I wouldn't bother being nice enough to let a court-martial go through. No, I'd use every ounce of the skills I've earned to make whoever took her regret it."

There was silence at that, as Ino shook, more scared than she'd ever been in her life.

"Now tell me, little girl," Kakashi said. "How are you and your daddy and your sensei going to make me give Sakura to you?"

Asuma and Inoichi both rapidly recalculated what they knew about Hatake Kakashi even as Ino took one step back, then two.

"I thought so," Kakashi said, straightening back up and looking to Inoichi and Asuma. "I find your indulgence of this girl disgraceful. Just think what might have happened had she acted out against some other Jounin who wasn't nearly as nice and easy-going as I am. I hope you take the training of this girl more seriously in the future."

Then he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The memorial service for Sakura's parents was held two days later. It was a simple affair, but a fitting homage to the elder Harunos, carried out exactly to their wishes. Sakura still hadn't said a single word. She stood at the service silently, looking as though she were standing by sheer force of will alone. Naruto and Sasuke stood at her side the entire time, hovering like protective bookends with at least one of them holding her at all times.

Kakashi understood their concern, and their need to help the only way they knew how. After all, he kept his own post, standing sentry right behind the three of them.

When the service was over, Kakashi looked to the crowd of people gathering around to give Sakura their condolences. It wasn't a small crowd, and for all of the times he'd been standing in Sakura's shoes (and it was more often than he ever cared to remember) Kakashi had always thought this was one of the worst parts of the whole thing. He settled a hand on her shoulder to offer what comfort he could, though he knew it wasn't much.

A number of civilians who had obviously dealt with the Harunos through their shop all came over in ones and twos, giving soft, gentle words he knew were supposed to offer comfort to Sakura. Kakashi wondered if she found any of them useful. They'd never done anything for him in all the times he'd heard them. Then came Sakura's friends, mostly rookie genin or those who had failed out of the program. Ino, he saw, looked up to him in terror before giving Sakura a tight hug and scurrying away. Kakashi would have felt a bit guilty over that had he not seen her cutting her eyes to Sasuke and angling her torso just so to have given Sasuke her best possible angle. Unfortunately for Ino, Sasuke had not been looking.

Kakashi had been surprised when Tsunade and Shizune had shown up, and wondered whether the legendary medic-nin had been serious when she'd mentioned taking Sakura on as an apprentice. Her presence at the memorial certainly seemed to indicate that she was. And with Jiraiya trailing behind her, Kakashi knew the old hermit would be putting up a fight to take Naruto, because he couldn't think of any reason other than Naruto that Jiraiya would come to the service.

"Haruno-san, please accept my sincerest condolences." Kakashi recognized the thin, reedy man with glasses and thinning hair who bowed shallowly to Sakura. "I served as your parents' attorney, and I will need to speak with you at some point regarding their will."

Sakura, who had remained dry-eyed up to that point, suddenly sniffled.

"At some point," Kakashi said, cutting the man off from saying more. "But not today." The lawyer looked like he was going to protest. Then he caught sight of the look he was getting from Kakashi. And, Kakashi realized, from Naruto and Sasuke, too. The lawyer nodded quickly.

"Not today, of course, Jounin-sama," he said. "I just wanted to introduce myself to you and let you know that I am available at your convenience. Again, Haruno-san, I'm very sorry for your loss." He then quickly excused himself.

Then everyone was gone except for a young man and an older couple Kakashi assumed to be his parents. As they approached, a sixth sense told him this was going to be trouble.

"Ah, Sakura-chan," the young man said, taking Sakura's hand in his. "I'm so sorry, darling. How terrible for this to happen. How sad."

Sakura blinked and tilted her head to the side, as though she were seeing what was in front of her for the first time.

"I know you're grieving, darling. But I want you to know, my parents and I have discussed it and we've decided that our betrothal will still go forward. So you'll have nothing to worry about. We'll be sure to have the wedding quickly, to help you get over your grief."

"Who are you," Sasuke demanded, even as Naruto pulled Sakura back and away from him.

"Me?" the young man asked, putting a hand on his chest. "Why, I'm Horatsu Barumo. Sakura-chan's betrothed, of course. Who are _you?_"

"Sakura's team," Sasuke said curtly.

"And as her Jounin-sensei," Kakashi cut in. "I am now her guardian and next of kin. So I'll ask you to please address all legal matters, including any betrothal negotiations, exclusively to Clan Hatake, Horatsu-san."

Kakashi saw the surprise and dismay writ clear on all of the Horatsu's faces. They wanted Sakura. Likely for her family's business, though Kakashi wasn't enough of a tradesman to understand just how valuable it might be. He just knew they weren't pleased to find Sakura anything but alone and vulnerable.

He sometimes hated when his sixth sense was right.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sakura had never been more grateful for her team than she was throughout the funeral and everything that came after. She'd barely been able to feed herself, much less arrange for a memorial service or deal with her parents' will.

But she hadn't had to. Her team had quietly taken care of everything for her, and she hadn't been allowed more than an arm's reach away from one of them since she'd been given the news. Sakura was relatively certain that it was only their constant presence that had kept her from falling screaming into a deep abyss and never crawling out again.

And now, all that was left were the details.

"Basically, they left everything to you," Kakashi told her as they ate dinner in his apartment. That he'd let them all stay with him for so long was just one of the things she was indebted to him for. The day he'd just spent with her parents' attorney—without making her go with him—was another. "There are only two things you have to make decisions on now: the shop and your betrothal."

"…My what?" Sakura asked. She noticed Sasuke and Naruto giving Kakashi keen looks. And Kakashi himself looked vaguely uncomfortable.

"Horatsu Barumo has put a claim in on your parents' estate, saying that he and your parents had reached an agreement that you were to be betrothed," he explained.

"But I don't want to be married," Sakura said, eyes going wide as the feelings of panic encroached.

"Then I'll take care of it," Kakashi said, voice dark. Sakura didn't want to know how he was going to take care of it, and quite honestly didn't care. All she knew was that she'd kill herself before she married Barumo.

"Good," Sasuke said, nodding to Kakashi. "And what about the shop?"

"The shop…" Sakura trailed off. "I… I don't want to be a shop keeper. I'm a kunoichi. But I… I don't know what to do. I can't get rid of it; they loved that shop so much…"

She began to weep again.

"M-maybe it would be better for me to marry B-barumo after all. Then he could take care of the shop, and… and…"

"You're not marrying anyone," Kakashi said firmly.

"And don't worry about the shop, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, "I'll take care of it."

"B-but you're a shinobi, not a shop-keeper," she said.

Naruto grinned.

"Ah, but you forget, Sakura-chan," he said. "I wasn't always a shinobi. And I know people who aren't shinobi. Just trust me."

She nodded, too grateful she didn't have to make any decisions at all to question things too heavily.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It hadn't been difficult for Kakashi to find where the Horatsu family lived. They were, after all, just civilians while he was an elite Jounin of Konoha. And he thought dealing with the betrothal issue promptly would be for the best. So it was that first thing the morning after discussing it with Sakura that Kakashi was knocking on their front door.

A servant answered, bowing to him.

"Good morning, Shinobi-sama," the girl said. "How might this one be of service?"

And he was promptly shown in and asked to wait for the Horatsus in their handsomely furnished receiving room. When they made him wait an entire half-hour, he knew that they didn't care what he had to say, that they were the type who thought they'd get their way no matter what. He'd dealt with their kind before and knew this wouldn't go away quickly or easily.

Kakashi felt a headache coming on.

"Ah, Hatake-san," Barumo greeted as he wandered in, his parents in tow. "How nice that you were able to stop by to see us."

"I am here in my role as Haruno Sakura's guardian," Kakashi said formally, addressing himself to the patriarch of the family as was proper in these circumstances. "Haruno-san is not seeking a husband at this time, and while honored by your offer, is unable to accept."

Three jaws went slack at his pronouncement.

"I know Sakura is young," the patriarch said. "But her father and I had a number of serious discussions about the future. We had agreed on the dowry and the bride price, and all that was left was to sign the documents. Sakura and Barumo were to be betrothed until she was old enough to properly marry."

And by that, Kakashi knew he meant old enough to safely bare an heir. He found himself wanting to make sure that neither Horatsu man was ever able to create an heir again.

"I'm willing to abide by that agreement still if she would like time," the elder Horatsu continued, unaware of the violent bent of Kakashi's thoughts, "but it's best for her not to be worried about her future. She's just a little girl, after all."

"She is a kunoichi," Kakashi disagreed. "And she is my ward. We have discussed her future, and it has been decided that Haruno-san is not seeking a husband at this time. There will be no betrothal, Horatsu-san."

"I had a deal with Haruno-san. You can't do this!"

"I can," Kakashi corrected. "Haruno-san was very thorough, and sent his attorney a copy of the notice breaking off their negotiations with you, Horatsu-san. As Sakura is not seeking a husband, I see no need to begin the negotiations anew."

Barumo turned red.

"Listen here, you thug," Barumo said, storming over to him. "If you know what's good for you, you'll hand over the little twit."

Kakashi just raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was supposed to be intimidated. Maybe if the boy didn't look as soft as a newborn, he might have been mildly concerned. Then again, no.

"Do you know who you're dealing with?" Barumo demanded, throwing his hands out and shoving Kakashi back. Well, tried to, anyway. Kakashi just tilted his head to the side.

"I'm curious, Horatsu-san," Kakashi replied. "Do _you_ know who you're dealing with?"

Barumo lifted his hands to shove him again, but Kakashi raised his own hand in warning.

"I allowed your first assault, and am willing to let it slide, given what I am sure is your extreme disappointment in finding your tentative betrothal is no more." Kakashi's tone of voice made it clear just what he thought of both the 'assault' and Barumo's disappointment. "But think carefully before you take that next step, Horatsu-san. I will not be so forgiving of another attack on my person."

Barumo's face turned even darker red, and Kakashi was sure it was only his father's order to sit down along with his mother physically taking his hand that prevented Barumo from trying to kill him. Kakashi thought it rather a shame Barumo hadn't tried. Because he was sure these people were snakes in the grass, and that they would come back time and again until they either got what they wanted or were defanged. And an assault on a Konoha shinobi would go a long way towards that defanging.

ooooooooooooooooooooo

It had been close to a week since the funeral. Kakashi hadn't been at all surprised that Sakura hadn't made any noises about returning home, but that neither Sasuke nor Naruto had was certainly curious. Instead, they were all three still camped out in his tiny, one-bedroom apartment. And, while he did admit that it was a bit of a relief to have all three of his kids together in one place where he could keep an eye on them, he also had to be honest enough (at least to himself) to admit that it was disconcerting to have his space invaded and completely taken over by his kids. Kakashi had been living alone since age six and was well and truly set in his ways, after all.

But, watching them as they continued the conditioning regime he'd set up for them, listening to their friendly banter, Kakashi found he couldn't bring himself to even think about suggesting they leave. They all seemed so much better together, when they had each other to lean on and support.

And, really, they were all still so fragile. Sakura was still desperately grieving for her parents, and lived in something of a zombie-like state whenever the boys weren't distracting her. Sasuke had been an obsessive disaster-waiting-to-happen since Itachi had killed his clan, and while his downward spiral into insanity had stopped, Kakashi was under no illusions that he wouldn't still be raising major red flags on his next psych eval. And Naruto… Naruto somehow thought he was a prostitute's child, had far too many contacts with the yakuza, and had an inferiority complex so large and so deeply ingrained that he was certain he'd never even make Chuunin and, somehow, had been able to hide all of it well enough that Kakashi hadn't even noticed until Naruto had practically hit him over the head with it.

And yet, somehow, they all fit together. Kakashi motioned with his hand for them to start sparring as they finished the last of the exercises he'd set them on. Then he sighed and laid on his back, stretching his legs out and closing his eyes as he tried to think of ways to make his kids whole again as he listened to the sounds of their sparring and the light banter of their exchanges.

They really were better when they were together. Sakura would smile sometimes. And Sasuke would allow himself to relax the tiniest bit. And Naruto seemed calmer, and somehow more whole. And with the three of them all living together, the effects were only amplified. So no, he couldn't ask them to leave.

Which left him with the dilemma of four people all living in his tiny one-bedroom apartment.

"Sleeping on the job, Kakashi?" Kurenai asked, clear disapproval in her tone. "Really, they deserve the benefit of your full attention, such as it is. If you accept a genin team, they need to be your priority."

Kakashi only grunted, annoyed that she was there at all much less that she, a newly minted Jounin, thought she could lecture him.

"I know you're supposed to be legendary," she lectured, annoying him even further. Because while he didn't care what others thought, the constant doubting of his abilities he'd run into lately was frustrating. He supposed he'd have to do something about Danzo's rumors after all. "But you can't just ignore them and expect them to somehow learn. They're your responsibility now, and you have to start acting like it."

"Kurenai," Kakashi said without opening his eyes or sitting up. "Go away. And get back to work, kids." They had been far too quiet and had gotten much too close for Kakashi to believe they were still sparring seriously instead of listening in on his conversation.

"Ne, Kaka-sensei," Sakura said, playing up the little girl role. "Can't we take a break?"

And she threw herself down next to him, laying her head on his stomach even as Sasuke sat against him and used his bent legs as a backrest. He didn't miss that they'd placed themselves between him and Kurenai. Or that Naruto stood just behind them, loose and ready just in case he was needed.

It was cute, he decided, that they so clearly wanted to protect him. They really were good kids.

"Kakashi, I need to speak with you," Kurenai said, interrupting his thoughts. "Alone."

He refrained from sighing.

"Lake," he told the kids. They all groaned.

"But Kaka-sensei," Sakura pouted.

"Do we have to?" Naruto asked.

"Go," Kakashi told them.

"Tch," Sasuke sniffed in annoyance. "How many?"

"I'll tell you when you can stop."

They all groaned some more, then got up and headed off to the lake at a jog. He'd rescue them from their laps in a while. No more than an hour. Or two.

He sat up and finally opened his eye, glancing at Kurenai only to find her looking very displeased.

"Well?" he prompted her.

"They're turning thirteen this year," she said. "Which means you'll have to start teaching them about body work missions."

To call it a body work mission was the polite way of discussing a mission where sex was involved. He wasn't surprised Kurenai used the polite terminology. Hot as she was, she was also ridiculously prim and proper.

"And?" he asked.

"And, I wanted to make sure Sakura was given all the tools she needs." Kurenai crossed her arms in front of her chest as she leaned against a tree. "I don't want to see a kunoichi get herself into trouble because she was sent out without the proper training."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her.

"Look," she said, frustrated. "I just wanted to tell you that I'll train her for this, and sometime next month, I'll be taking her for a week or two for it."

"Have you ever been on a lipstick mission?" Kakashi asked, using the term most kunoichi put to sexually related missions. Kurenai flushed and began to protest his asking. "Hm, no, I didn't think so. For all that he does his best to be fair and even, the Hokage does know that Asuma has had his eye on you for years now."

Her face turned a deep red at that.

"That has nothing to do with…"

"It has everything to do with this, as I would never leave my team to be trained by an inexperienced instructor. I can take care of training my own team, and will do so when and how I see fit," Kakashi said, cutting her off. "You'll not take Sakura next week. And you will not make plans to take any of my genin without my permission again."

She looked like she was going to protest.

"Dismissed, Kurenai," he said pointedly. She turned on her heel and left.

ooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi _still _wasn't sure how, when it was his apartment, somehow the kids had taken over his bed and he'd been relegated to the couch. But as he watched over them, he couldn't help but smile just a bit at how, curled up together as they were, they looked like nothing so much as a pile of puppies exhausted from a hard day of playing.

Of course, in their case, playing meant intense training. But Kakashi wasn't sure how else to make sure they would all be able to sleep. All of his kids were haunted by enough to keep anyone up at night, so he continued to train them into exhaustion day after day, in hopes of helping them take their minds off of it. It had worked for him. Well, mostly, anyway.

Sometimes.

Occasionally.

…

…

_So alright,_ Kakashi decided, _I'll have to come up with something better for them._

Naruto shifted in his sleep, unable to keep still even while unconscious, and Sasuke's elbow shoved into Naruto's ribs in a way Kakashi thought looked very uncomfortable even as Sakura clung to the blonde a little tighter.

Kakashi shook his head and headed to the couch with the threadbare blanket and old, dilapidated pillow. He pursed his lips as he considered the situation.

Napping on the old couch every once in a while was fine, but it wasn't a substitute for his bed. The lumps were starting to make his back ache, and he was too tall, leaving his feet to stick off the end. Which meant the blanket always slipped, and he woke up every morning with freezing feet.

Kakashi _hated_ having cold feet.

He sighed as he settled in for another uncomfortable night. They couldn't all continue living in his tiny apartment. Hell, the place was barely livable for one old bachelor. And he couldn't send the kids off to live by themselves again. He knew firsthand how much that messed with your mind to be on your own at such a young age.

They couldn't stay. And they couldn't go.

Which, he realized, really left them only one option. He sighed again, this time in distress. The things he did for his kids.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Ohayo mina-san," Kakashi said, waking them with a cheeriness he was certain sounded as forced as it felt. "Today we have a most dangerous mission assigned to us. Indeed, we shall be risking life, limb, and our very sanity by tackling such a thing."

"Oh, no," Sakura put her hands over her face as Naruto groaned and Sasuke sighed heavily.

"D-rank mission: Restore an Abandoned Clan House!" Kakashi said, heartened by their obvious suffering.

They all groaned in dismay, then rolled out of the bed and began getting ready. He tossed them each a granola bar and a banana and the kids began trudging along after him, still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes as he led them away from the more populated section of Konoha into one of the older neighborhoods. The streets there were narrow, and the houses lining them—all larger family homes built in the old, traditional style—were all set back far enough from the road that privacy was guaranteed. This district had no apartment buildings, no shops, no restaurants, just old clan style homes.

It seemed far too soon, but there they were, turning down a lane that he hadn't walked on in almost twenty years. He cursed himself silently when he saw his kids had picked up on his sudden tensing, causing them to come alert and move slightly apart from each other so as not to create too large a target and give themselves room to maneuver. In other circumstances, Kakashi would be pleased they did such a thing so automatically. Now, he was just annoyed.

"Maa, maa, just bad memories," he said, signing to them to stand down. He could practically feel their stares burning into the back of his head.

Then they were at the stone pathway that led from the street to his old family house. He had a flashback of himself as a little kid, running down the path to greet his father as he came home from a mission, then jumping into his arms and riding on his shoulders back to the house where his mother was waiting. He shook his head to clear it, and began down the path at a brisk pace.

"Ne, Sensei," Sakura asked hesitantly, tugging on his sleeve a bit, "are you sure… that is, is everything alright?"

"Fine, fine," he said, patting her head dismissively even as he silently berated himself for not making a solo trip first to clear out any old ghosts he might have.

He quickly strode up to the door and sliced his thumb, smearing it over the seal the Fourth had placed on the house for him.

"Wait," Naruto said, eyeing the seal in a way Kakashi decided had far too much interest. So he quickly performed the simple dispelling seal the Fourth had taught him to remove the preservation seal. Then he looked up to see Naruto watching him, probably knowing quite a bit more than Kakashi would prefer just from his short glimpse at the seals. But he didn't ask questions, for which Kakashi was grateful.

"Come on," he said, waving to them to follow him into the house.

"So… what exactly are we here for again?" Sasuke asked, looking around.

"We're cleaning it out," Kakashi said. "And the guy who used to live here was a paranoid little bastard, so you can think of dealing with all of the traps as a sort of training."

He grinned as they groaned again. Then he opened the door and led them inside.

As they looked around, even Kakashi was surprised by the simultaneous state of disarray and tidiness tucked away inside the house. Pieces of furniture were still shoved out of the way, exactly where he'd pushed them so he could train inside the house when his sensei had demanded he go home, and at least half of it was destroyed as a result of that training. There were various dishes that were still piled in the sink, remnants of food still caked onto them. And he had to wonder what his bedroom was like. But there wasn't more than a fine layer of dust coating anything—probably the same dust that had been there when Minato-sensei had sealed the house.

"How long has this place been abandoned?" Naruto asked, and Kakashi forced himself out of his fog.

"Oh, about twenty years," Kakashi answered. He noticed the appraising look Naruto was giving the place and wondered what else he had managed to pick up. The boy really was much more observant than most people ever gave him credit for, but just now, Kakashi wished he'd turn it off.

"Bull," Sasuke said, much to all of their surprise. "I've seen houses that have been abandoned for years, and this doesn't look like any I've ever seen."

"The seal Kaka-sensei broke was for more than security," Naruto said. "I couldn't get much more of a read on it than that it had an element of preservation in it, but I did manage to catch that before Kaka-sensei broke it." Kakashi ignored Naruto's accusing glare.

"…Can you put one on another clan house?" Sasuke asked Kakashi, who belatedly realized what abandoned houses he'd visited and why, exactly, they'd been abandoned.

"I don't know enough about the seal to recreate it," Kakashi admitted. He was a bit disconcerted when Sasuke immediately shrugged and turned to Naruto.

"I didn't see much of it," Naruto hedged, closing his eyes to try to dredge up an image of it from the brief glimpse he'd gotten. "I'll do what I can."

"Not right now you won't," Kakashi said, glancing to Sakura, who still hadn't said a word. "People will be moving in shortly, so we need to get it back into shape as best we can as quickly as we can. So get moving."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

He supposed that he hadn't been in much shape to do much housekeeping after his mother had died, but he hadn't realized he'd been this bad. Some areas were as pristine as they'd ever been while his mother was alive. Other areas looked as though they'd been invaded by filth. He could see why the Fourth had made him move. Looking back, he'd obviously been self-destructing. And honestly, he couldn't quite pinpoint when he'd stopped.

He found himself alone in a room with Naruto, who was looking at him with eyes that were far too old.

"This was your home, wasn't it," Naruto said quietly. Kakashi scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"What gave it away?" he asked. Naruto shrugged.

"So you're moving back in?" he asked instead.

"Ah, well, that is… I'd hoped to tell the three of you all at once," Kakashi said. Naruto nodded, as though that made sense to him.

"I'm used to being on my own," Naruto said.

"I'm going to try to…"

"For that matter, Sasuke is, too, but he never really adapted, since he had family for the first half of his life. And he depends on you more than I think you realize," Naruto continued without allowing Kakashi to finish. "And as for Sakura, I think you know how ill-suited she is to being on her own." Kakashi nodded. These were some of the exact reasons he'd made the decision he had.

"So I want you to promise me you won't abandon them when the baby comes."

Kakashi blinked.

"…The baby?" he asked.

Naruto cocked his head to the side.

"Isn't that why you're doing this?" Naruto asked. "I heard a rumor about a girl I'd heard you were seeing. That she'd… er… gotten in trouble? Isn't that why you're moving back into your old home? To move her in here to raise your kid?"

"My… kid…" Kakashi said, stunned and more than a little confused and dazed. "Er, look, I think you have the wrong idea here, Naruto. I haven't seen that girl—hell, any girl—in, well, since I got you guys as a team." Kakashi considered that and decided that this was a situation he would have to rectify. He'd been without for longer in the past, but it had usually involved long term missions. "If she's in trouble, the kid isn't mine."

It was Naruto's turn to blink in surprise.

"Oh," he said.

"So, whatever you were thinking was going to happen with this house? That isn't it," Kakashi said. "And even if it was, do you really think I'd abandon the three of you?"

Naruto only cocked his head to the side, and Kakashi realized that the confusion from Wave hadn't done his sense of belonging any good.

"You're mine, Naruto," Kakashi said with a sigh, tugging Naruto closer and petting the back of his neck. "For better or for worse, you're mine. Now go help Sasuke with the next room."

Naruto eyed him for another few moments, then tucked his face into Kakashi's side and clutched one hand onto his vest in a fleeting imitation of a hug, then nodded and disappeared. Kakashi rubbed his forehead, wondering if he truly understood what it was he was getting into and decided he likely didn't.

But, he thought as he looked around the remnants of his father's old room, he could probably safely say he wasn't self-destructing anymore.

Probably.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

When they'd finished hauling out all of the furniture that was broken beyond repair and cleaning up all of the various little messes Kakashi had left before Minato-sensei had dragged him out of the house all but kicking and screaming, the kids turned to him for direction.

"Let's sit," he said, suddenly nervous. He sat on the spot, right on the ground, not even bothering to find a chair that hadn't been scrapped. The kids shrugged and did the same.

"This place…" Kakashi trailed off, running a hand through his hair and uncertain how to say what he wanted to say. Words had never been his strong point. Give him a kunai and he could do just about anything asked of him in seconds. But feelings and emotions and—may the will of fire help him, _explaining_ them—were big giant gaping black pits he'd always glossed over and avoided when at all possible. And Kakashi often made a point of making it possible.

"This used to be my house," he spit out. Then he shook his head. "Is my house. It's my clan home." He let out a breath, frustrated at himself. Then he looked to his kids, none of whom looked particularly surprised. "You knew?"

They all nodded and he cocked his head, silently asking for an explanation.

"The seal," Naruto said with a shrug, which Kakashi had already known.

"I cleaned up a few of your special shirts with the masks in them," Sakura explained. "I can't believe you wore them even when you were that little."

"It was listed on a map of all the clan compounds in my father's den." Sasuke refused to look at him, but Kakashi understood. Both the shame of going through your dead father's things and the embarrassment of being caught out looking for information on your sensei. He'd done both, too, once upon a time.

"Right," he said. "Well. Then. Here's the thing. I can't deal with cold feet anymore."

They all looked at him like he'd gone a little bit crazy. He wasn't sure they weren't right. He shook his head, clearing it so he could put words together in a way that other people might actually be able to make sense of.

"What I mean is, my apartment is too small. We should move here, instead."

There was dead silence at that pronouncement.

"Look, it's big enough, and you can each have your own bedroom, and I'm not saying you should give up your other places, but this way…"

He was cut off when Sakura dove at him, settling against his chest and gripping him tightly enough he absently realized the conditioning he'd set her was working.

"Thank you, Sensei," she said, voice a bit muffled by his vest. He looked up to the boys to see what they thought, to find them both looking poleaxed, but not necessarily opposed. He decided to move to make it final before they thought to object.

"Let's pick out your rooms," he said, standing and hoisting Sakura onto his back. The boys didn't move, still trying to make sense of what was going on. He understood. The idea of living with other people after being on your own for so long was one that would take some getting used to. He was still rather iffy on the idea himself. Not that he'd tell them that, of course.

Instead he bent and scooped both boys up, one under each arm, and dragged all three of his kids through the house to find their rooms. Of course, they immediately began squirming to get away, but Kakashi just shifted his grip to keep hold and ignored their increasingly loud and dangerous (if he hadn't been a Jounin) protests of the treatment. Then Sakura began giggling.

And he relaxed. Because even if this wasn't exactly the conventional thing to do, for them it was just right.


	7. Chapter 7

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin **

**Chapter Seven**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Most days, the Hokage wished he could order Danzo killed. On days like this, he wished he could do it himself.

It was enough that he had to contend with Danzo spreading ridiculous rumors that a 27 year old shinobi was somehow past his prime. And that it didn't appear to the rest of the village that the rumors had been instigated by Danzo's jealousy only made it more exasperating, as it meant the rumors were likely _working._

And now there was this to deal with, too. The Hokage frowned again as he looked at the paperwork in front of him. He now had three complaints from current Jounin-sensei regarding one Hatake Kakashi and the training and care of his team. The complaints listed seemed at odds with what he himself had observed, but he supposed it was possible they had seen things he hadn't. Highly unlikely, but possible.

Nevertheless, with three complaints it was required that he look further into the allegations, an old mechanism put in place when Konoha had first started using Jounin-sensei to teach ninja outside the traditional clan setting in order to protect clan children from being exploited, ignored, or having their techniques stolen by jealous non-clan or rival-clan Jounin. Which was why he'd called Kakashi to his office to discuss it with him. No matter how much it annoyed him that he had to do it. He had _plans _for Kakashi, damn it all, even if the boy was being stubborn at the moment, and doubts about his fitness as a Jounin-sensei certainly didn't fit into them.

When there was a knock at his door he was annoyed by the interruption. It was only fifteen minutes after the meeting he'd summoned Kakashi to, which meant it certainly wouldn't be him, and the Hokage didn't want to deal with anything that might cause his meeting with Kakashi to be further delayed or interrupted. So when Kakashi was announced by his ANBU, the Hokage was both surprised and pleased. Being a Jounin sensei had apparently done more for Kakashi than he'd realized.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, giving an appropriate bow then standing at his relaxed version of attention.

"Sit," the Hokage told him, motioning to the chair across from him. "I have received three reports detailing concerns about your teaching methods."

He watched Kakashi's reaction carefully. Because, even though he wore a mask and his forehead protector covered one eye, if you knew what to look for you could still see hints of his reaction.

"May I know who filed the reports?" Kakashi asked. The Hokage didn't reply, which was an answer in and of itself. Because Kakashi hadn't had even a hint of a reaction in his body language. In a shinobi as experienced and well trained as Kakashi, the Hokage knew that meant either absolute fury or complete indifference. The Hokage knew which one he was betting on.

"Hm, well, perhaps you won't mind my musing aloud," Kakashi said. "Kurenai would likely be most recent, after I informed her it was unacceptable to me for her to train Sakura in body work missions next month. Then… Asuma. A few weeks back. Most probably in response to the dressing down I gave his genin. And the third? Hm."

Kakashi tapped his fingers against his thigh as his mind worked.

"Gai is most likely," Kakashi said. "Though I'd expect that report to have been made a few months ago, if it were him."

The Hokage remained silent as he was reminded yet again why Kakashi had been considered a genius and one of Konoha's most elite shinobi for so long. He wasn't sure there were any other shinobi in the village who could have made such quick and accurate deductions from such little information. And, he knew, his lack of protest only confirmed for Kakashi that his guesses had been correct.

He took a mental note to keep those three Jounin out of rotation for foreign missions until Kakashi had finished his revenge. He didn't want injured shinobi in the field, after all, and by making them sitting ducks for Kakashi, he also managed to satisfy his own petty desire for reprisal on the three. Weak of him, he knew, but even the Hokage was only a man. And this additional hit to Kakashi's reputation _annoyed _him.

It was not good to be the ninja who annoyed the Hokage.

"From what I have seen, I am ready to dismiss all of these reports," the Hokage said, and saw a minute relaxation of Kakashi's shoulders at his words. "But protocol must be followed, so you may submit your formal reply to the complaints to me in writing by the end of the day."

"If there's to be an inquiry," Kakashi said. "I would like to request that the kids be kept out of it as much as you can."

"You know that won't be possible."

"They don't deserve to be dragged into the middle of this."

"Neither do you," the Hokage said, clearly surprising Kakashi. But then, it was the truth. If not for his needing a successor, Danzo's attention would never have fallen on the boy; if not for that, rumors about his abilities would never have been spread; and, if not for those rumors, the Hokage had no doubts that nobody would have even thought to question his teaching methods. So really, the whole mess could be put squarely on Minato's shoulders. The Sandaime had never been so angry as he'd been when he'd found what the Fourth had done. It was fortunate for Minato indeed that he was already dead when Sarutobi had been told.

"Team 7 will report to Shiranui Genma until the inquiry is complete. You are not to have contact with them until then."

"Ano, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head. "You… know they're all living with me, right?"

The Hokage blinked in surprise. Then his mouth twitched, and he couldn't help but start laughing.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

When Genma showed up later that day to meet Team 7 instead of Kakashi, they were not amused. When he told them they were to report to him until further notice, they were furious.

They had been nominally concerned when he hadn't come home the night before, but he was a Jounin, and Kakashi had a habit of staying out on occasion. Sakura had once asked the boys what they thought he did on his nights out, but the looks she'd gotten from them in response made sure she'd never asked again.

"Where is Sensei," Sakura demanded. Sasuke slid off the branch he'd been lazing on as they'd waited for Kakashi even as Naruto slid into place next to her.

"Look," Genma said to them. "This isn't my idea of a fun deal, either. I sure didn't want to get stuck babysitting a bunch of brats, or have my missions cut so I could. But orders are orders, so we all get to deal with it."

Team 7 glanced at each other, nodding in agreement .

"Where is Sensei," Sakura repeated her demand, not in the least deterred.

"Above my pay grade," Genma said with a shrug. "Now let's start with some conditioning."

"Let's start with you telling us what the fuck is really going on," Naruto said.

"Look, I'm just here to fill in until Hatake's back, alright?" Genma was clearly annoyed. That was fine with Sakura; she rather thought she and the rest of Team 7 were likely even more annoyed by this whole thing.

"Not alright," Sasuke said. "And not all you're here for. Tell us what's going on, or we'll find out on our own."

"Tch, good luck with that." Genma snorted. "Orders on this came straight from the Hokage's office. I'd like to see you get through that security."

When he saw the contemplative looks on their faces, he thought that perhaps that hadn't been the best way to phrase it. When he caught their hand signs—ones that vaguely reminded him of his ANBU days but which made no sense at all—he began to worry. Because no matter how long ago Kakashi's glory days had been, there was a reason he was a legend. And there was no telling what he might have passed along to his genin.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It took them five minutes of sparring to get Genma to dismiss them for the day. Surprisingly, it had been Sakura who had disabled him. And then proceeded to look so innocent that butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

"I'm so sorry, Genma-sensei," she pouted, twisting her hair around her finger in apparent dismay.

"Why can't I feel my legs?" Genma asked, sounding dazed.

"Ano, Genma-sensei, I'm learning about medical jutsu, but I'm just a genin so I don't know much." Sakura bit her lip. "I didn't realize you wouldn't be able to move in time. Kakashi-sensei is so fast I forget sometimes that not all Jounin can move like him."

Naruto ducked behind Sasuke to keep Genma from seeing him sniggering.

"…You used a medical technique on me?"

"I tried to, Genma-sensei," Sakura said, nodding earnestly. "But I guess I didn't get it all the way right. I sometimes do that, but I'm getting better. Really!"

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Sasuke said dismissively. "She once burned my eyebrows off, but they grew back. Eventually."

"That was a long time ago!" Sakura protested, stamping her foot. Then she reached forward, hands glowing green with medical chakra. "There's no way I would make that mistake again. Now here, let me see whether I can fix this or not."

"No!" Genma used his arms to scoot out of the way faster than he'd thought possible.

"Mou, Genma-sensei, don't you want me to try to help you?" Sakura's bottom lip was quivering, and if Naruto didn't know her better, he'd have thought she was truly distraught. As it was, he was quite proud of her little con. "I'm the one who messed up the technique so badly that you can't feel your legs anymore. If you never regain feeling in them, I'll just be… devastated. Won't you let me help?"

"Ah ha ha," Genma laughed nervously. "How about you practice on your teammates? Or… a dead fish or something? I'm… just going to go to the hospital for a little while. Dismissed."

And with a flash of smoke, Genma used a shunshin to disappear. Sakura's distraught expression disappeared equally quickly.

"Pussy," she muttered. Sasuke choked on his spit as Naruto used him to keep himself from collapsing with the laughter he smothered into Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke gave him an elbow jab and he fell to the ground with an oomph. Naruto's foot meeting his thigh meant Sasuke followed him shortly after.

Sakura sighed as she watched the boys tumble around on the ground.

"Please continue if you want to follow Genma to the hospital," she said, voice as sweet as could be. The boys froze, looked to each other, then tackled her.

"Hey!" she protested, laughing even as they dragged her into their impromptu wrestling match. A few minutes later, panting and out of breath, they came to an unspoken truce. Then Sakura smacked both of them upside the head and got up.

"Now let's go find Kaka-sensei."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Three hours into their fruitless search for their errant sensei, Naruto found himself the center of a bit of unwanted attention.

"Ne, Naruto, I think you have an admirer," Sakura teased, nudging him with her elbow. Naruto didn't need to look behind him to know that it was the female genin they'd saved in Wave. She'd been following him at least part of almost every day they'd been back in Konoha. He found it more than a little disconcerting, but had thus far been managing to ignore it.

He grunted as his eyes passed over the genin. She appeared to have brought a friend with her this time. "I think they're spawning," Naruto said incredulously.

"Yeah." Sasuke sighed, shoulders drooping a bit. "They do that."

And for the first time, he thought he understood Sasuke's fervent dislike of his fan girls. Because as inept as she was at following him, Naruto thought the girl's time would be much better spent training in just about anything.

"Even I wasn't that bad," Sakura said, eyeing the genin in distaste. At the silence that greeted that statement, Sakura turned to her teammates, hands on her hips.

Sasuke looked at her skeptically.

"What? I wasn't," Sakura insisted. "Naruto, back me up here."

"Ah hah hah," Naruto laughed, desperately holding his hands up to protest his innocence. "There is no possible way for me to respond to this situation that would result in any positive outcome for me." He bit his lip. "Can I take a pass?"

Sakura and Sasuke both huffed in annoyance.

"Well, Ino was ten times worse, anyway," Sakura sniffed.

Sasuke made a sound that someone who didn't know him as well would have missed, but that his teammates easily read as agreement.

"And speaking of," Sasuke muttered, tilting his head to indicate Ino's imminent collision with them. Naruto scrunched up his nose in distaste. Ino had always been a gossip queen, and had never wanted anything to do with him. Then he realized that, in their current situation, that could make her incredibly useful.

"Ne, ne, it's Konoha's resident gossip monger," Naruto said, laughing brashly.

"What?" Ino cocked her head to the side, and Naruto could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. _There's the hook, _he thought.

"The girl who knows everything that's anything in the village, or at least makes it up if she doesn't," he continued.

"Now that isn't true, and you know it," Ino protested.

"Oh no?" Naruto asked. "Well, hah, Sasuke, she _doesn't _know. See, I told you she'd be no help." _And that's the line._

Ino cut her eyes to Sasuke and gave her lashes a bat or two. "Well, you know, I do know a lot about what's going on in the village," she said, then turned back to Naruto with much less sweetness displayed in her expression. "But I don't make anything up!"

"Nah, I don't believe it," Naruto said, scrunching up his nose. "If you knew everything, you'd know what happened to Kakashi-sensei, after all, and _we _don't even know that."

A gleam came into Ino's eye.

"Oh really?" she said archly, glancing to Sasuke. Naruto kicked him, trying to get him to play along, or at least grunt in his uncommunicative bastardish kind of way, but instead he just raised an eyebrow at him. Luckily, Ino thought it was directed at her and threw her shoulders back proudly.

_And, sinker. Score._

"Well, it just so happens that you're talking to one of the only people in all of Konoha who might know anything," she gushed, wanting to please Sasuke. Naruto almost felt bad about manipulating her into it, but she made it so easy he decided that, as a fellow genin, it was practically his _duty _to help her toughen up a bit. Really.

"And Sasuke-kun, if you really want to know, I'll tell you. He's under review for negligence and dereliction of his duties as a Jounin sensei," she eagerly spilled her guts, completely missing the shock her audience felt at her words. "It's all very hush hush, even if everyone knows how horrible he is to all of you. The only reason _I _know about it is because _my _sensei filed one of the complaints and told me about it, because that Kakashi was just so horrible and mean to me when I was so worried about Sakura-chan after her parents, well, you know. So with any luck, he'll be dismissed as your sensei, and you'll all get reassigned! Wouldn't that be great, Sasuke-kun? Then maybe you could be on _my _team instead of with Forehead Girl or the dead last!"

Even while preening under the thought of having done what her rival for Sasuke couldn't, Ino didn't miss the look of staggered looks on all three of her classmates' faces.

"Well what's wrong with you? I thought you'd be happy to get rid of such an old burn out of a Jounin for your sensei," Ino said, unsure of what had gone wrong. Because Team looked like they'd been sucker punched.

She pursed her lips, deciding she was going to get to the bottom of it, but before she could even open her mouth, Naruto had cocked his head to one side, Sasuke grunted, and Sakura nodded, and they all disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Hey, wait," she said, blinking at the use of the advanced technique. "How'd you do that? Asuma-sensei hasn't taught _us _how to do that yet."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

After hearing Ino's news, Team 7 had made a strategic fall back to one of their spots—in this case, the rooftop of a building that was roughly midway between most of their favorite food joints and, more importantly, had three separate peaks to it and an unusual configuration of the drainage spouts that left them a piece of rooftop just large enough for the three of them where they could sit for hours and watch the shinobi skyway traffic while remaining completely hidden.

They'd sat there in silence for quite a while before Sakura finally broke it.

"A review," she said, blowing out a hefty sigh. "Why in the world would anyone think Kaka-sensei wasn't doing his job? He's the best sensei _ever._"

Sasuke made a noise of agreement as Naruto picked at his fingers nervously.

"Well, I guess I can't say _ever _ever," Sakura rattled on. "Since, I mean, I haven't known all of them _ever_, but I can say without any bias at all that Kaka-sensei is by far the most capable of all of the Jounin-sensei currently serving."

She bit her lip and hugged herself.

"And who would have done this? We have Asuma, but there would need to be two others," Sakura continued. "Did they all do it independently? Did they conspire about it first? Was it because of some grudge or something?"

Naruto let out a little sound of pure distress.

"And where did Sensei _go_? Yesterday afternoon, he seemed completely fine, but now he's completely untraceable. Why wouldn't he tell us anything? Or did he not know until after breakfast? When were we going to be told any of this if Genma wasn't going to say anything?"

Sasuke furrowed his brow in annoyed agreement. Of course, he knew very well that Kakashi was a Jounin and so should be able to evade his detection should he really want to, but Sasuke found it aggravating nonetheless.

"There's too many questions." Sakura tugged at the ends of her hair, too distraught over everything else to worry about the fact she was trying to break that habit. "We need to focus."

"We should make it a mission," Sasuke said.

"Um, Sasuke? I don't think the Hokage will let us hire ourselves to investigate why he's reviewing our Sensei," Sakura pointed out.

Sasuke snorted. "I don't know, Naruto might be able to talk him into it."

"I want you to teach me how you do that, by the way," Sakura said.

"You're scary enough," Naruto retorted. "And besides, if I taught you how, it wouldn't ever work on you again."

Sakura and Sasuke both paused to consider that, then turned baleful stares back at him.

"That explains so much," Sakura said. Naruto only laughed nervously.

"We're getting off track." Sakura shook her head. Naruto sagged a bit in relief.

"Don't think I won't be coming back to this, Naruto," Sakura cautioned, raising her fist to show she was serious. Naruto nodded eagerly, though he began devising future evasions even as he seemed to agree.

"What did you mean, make it a mission?"

"I meant we should think of it like we do a C-rank," Sasuke said.

Sakura pursed her lips, then nodded. "Good idea. We should lay it out for ourselves. Well, alright. A mission then. In that case, what's our primary objective?"

"To kick the ass of everyone involved," Naruto offered hopefully.

Sakura snorted as the heel of Sasuke's palm connected with the back of Naruto's head.

"Objective: return Kakashi to the command of Team 7," Sasuke said.

"Right," Sakura agreed. "Next step, information gathering. What intel do we need? Who instigated the review? How long will it go on? Who's the final arbiter and what factors go into the decision?"

"And how can we influence it," Naruto added.

"Well, of course," Sakura said. "And, maybe most importantly, why was it done in the first place? Because we want to make sure it's never, ever, never never done again."

Naruto bit at his thumbnail. "Ah, well, there's a possibility that I might know why," he ventured tentatively.

Sasuke and Sakura's eyes snapped to him, Sasuke's eyebrow and the tilt of Sakura's head silently demanding answers.

"So I should maybe preface this by saying this is an S-class secret." He looked down as their eyes widened. "When I found out, the Hokage specifically forbid me from discussing this with anyone. Well, except him, I guess. Because it's to do with village safety and security."

Sasuke looked even more curious as Sakura's eyebrows drew together, clearly trying to figure out what could possibly be going on. Because they all well knew the penalty for disclosing an S-class secret to unauthorized persons—death.

Then Naruto dropped the bombshell.

"The Kyuubi never died that night the Fourth fought it. He sealed it away." His voice stumbled then. "In me, I mean."

Silence met his statement. Naruto didn't blame them, it was a rather shocking statement to make.

"I always thought the only reason people didn't like me was because, you know, Akasenko, and _nobody _likes any of us. But after the genin test, I found out about this, and thought that the Kyuubi thing is probably just as good a reason for people not to like me."

"But you said it was an S-class secret. How could people know?" Sakura pointed out.

"Um, that wasn't made clear to me. But I think it was only after the secret got out that the Hokage made it a secret?" Naruto guessed, glad they hadn't run away screaming.

"That doesn't make any sense," Sakura pointed out as Sasuke frowned.

"No," he agreed. "Unless the point was to create a rumor that would float to other countries, and our enemies."

Naruto scrunched his forehead. That was an angle he hadn't considered. In fact, he realized there was much about this he hadn't considered.

"You think three Jounin-sensei dislike you enough because of this that they wrote-up complaints on Kakashi-sensei in order to break up our team?"

"I think three Jounin-sensei hate me enough they'd do most anything to get me to quit being a shinobi at all," Naruto said. "I lost count of the number of times people tried to get me to quit while I was still in the Academy."

"Hn, ridiculous," Sasuke pronounced.

"Seriously. What jerks. I bet none of them even bothered to know you first, either," Sakura said, clearly disgruntled. "Well it's a good thing you never listened to them, Naruto-kun. And you better not start, either."

Naruto let out a shaky breath and a tentative smile. They didn't hate him. They didn't care about the Kyuubi. And Sakura was holding his hand and squeezing it for dear life. He thought he felt something in his hand pop in a way it really shouldn't, but decided that he'd always healed quickly enough in the past that he wouldn't say anything. Naruto never minded Sakura holding his hand.

Besides, if he did mention it, Sakura might want to try to heal him_. _A fate he'd thus far managed to avoid.

"Mm," Sasuke agreed. "I want to read those complaints against Sensei. And I want to know who wrote them. Then we'll figure out the why. And then we'll show them the error of their ways."

"Yeah. And find Kaka-sensei," Sakura added.

Naruto was just so glad they weren't upset over the whole Kyuubi thing he just nodded. "So where do we start?"

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi fingered one of the seal strips Naruto had given him months ago. He hadn't had cause to use the onigiri kage bunshin yet, but he found himself considering it. With it, he could ostensibly be in Ippana conducting an investigation into the Harunos' deaths—an investigation he'd finished with weeks ago after Naruto and Sasuke had convinced him they should send clones to the murder site, and after he'd had the boys dispel themselves.

As it hadn't been authorized and he hadn't found anything of note, Kakashi hadn't felt the need to tell the Hokage when he'd assigned the mission to keep him out of Konoha. And away from the kids.

He thought about it for a handful of seconds longer before slicing his thumb and smearing the seal with his blood, then forming the ram hand sign to create the clone. A puff of smoke later and he was looking at a perfect replica of himself. It nodded once and headed towards the gate to provide his cover story.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto waited, sipping his tea at the small tea house conveniently located near the Hokage's Administrative Tower. It was a favorite break and snack place for most of the shinobi employed in the Tower. And, as such, was a much nicer place than Naruto was used to frequenting.

It was also the perfect place to execute their plan to get into the Hokage's Tower, so he'd just have to suck it up and deal with it. Because they needed to know what was going on, and where Kakashi-sensei was so they could stop him from being reassigned. And Naruto was determined he wouldn't blow it all by letting on to the other customers that he really wasn't used to places like this.

"Relax," Sakura murmured, bumping his knee with her own even as she drew lines through the wet circles on the table.

It was easy for her to say, he thought. She'd been brought up frequenting these sorts of places. Naruto had grown up being thrown out of them. And the only times he'd visited otherwise, he'd come in the back entrance to do business and had left the same way.

"You fit in just fine," Sasuke said with a grunt, cutting to the heart of the matter as Naruto pulled at his cuffs again.

"That hotel in Saijin City was much more extravagant and you didn't have any problems there, right?" Sakura pointed out. Of course, in his mind, the two places were very different. The Hajimeto Hotel in Saijin City hadn't been run by respectable, decent folks, after all.

Sasuke's hand sweeping across the gleaming dark wood of the table forced Naruto's attention back on the task at hand; Sasuke had spotted their mark. He pushed his empty cup to Sakura to refill, using the movement to subtly point their attention in the right direction. Sakura poured Sasuke's refill.

"Oops. Empty," she said as it ran out mid-stream. "I'll be right back." This level of subterfuge probably wasn't necessary as it was unlikely their mark was keeping watch for anything potentially suspect—the man was in the heart of Konoha sticking to what was obviously a long held habit, after all—but Kakashi had drilled them mercilessly that bad habits killed good shinobi, so they went with it.

Sakura stood with the teapot, off to the counter with it to get a fresh one. Naruto and Sasuke were careful to make it seem they paid her no undue attention, even though they were watching closer than hawks. Naruto couldn't help it when his lips twitched at how deftly Sakura slipped the powder into the teapot destined for their mark's table.

Then he smiled fully as Sakura came back to the table with a slight spring in her step. She was obviously pleased with herself, but Naruto didn't blame her. There were few genin adept enough to be able to slip something into a Jounin's meal undetected. It was even fewer who could compound a powder tasteless and odorless enough to fool a Jounin.

He was facing away from where the Jounin always sat. By design, of course, but then he hadn't realized how boring it would be waiting for Sasuke and Sakura to tell him he was clear. Then Sasuke signaled that their mark had started his first cup of tea, and Naruto started his mental countdown.

'_Ten minutes and he'll need to piss like a racehorse,'_ Sakura had told them. Using those exact words. Both of them had choked in surprise at her less than lady like language. Naruto had even spat out his tea and spilled the rest all over himself. Which was why it was only Sasuke who'd found out ten minutes later just how well the drug worked, much to his dismay.

So at Sasuke's signal, he began timing back from ten so he'd move well before their mark, limiting suspicion from falling on them as much as possible.

When eight and a half minutes had passed, Naruto excused himself from the table and headed to the restroom. Because the best way to keep someone from realizing you're following him is to get there first. He took his time strolling through the teahouse and managed to shut the door behind him just as their target stood.

Naruto finished his business and lazily washed his hands, knowing their mark would be getting frantic. Then came the heavy knock on the door.

"Oi, you die in there or something?"

Naruto opened the door and cocked an eyebrow at him.

"All yours, mister." And when he brushed by him in a hurry to use the facilities, Naruto reverse pick-pocketed him and slipped a good sized pebble into his Jounin vest. Which he'd have been able to do without notice even without the laced tea. But the drug did more than act as an extreme diuretic, and the slight dulling of the Jounin's chakra sensory abilities was key to their plan's success.

He made his way back to Sasuke and Sakura, and they casually paid and were gone from the tea house before their mark was done taking a leak.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Security at the Hokage's Administrative Tower was understandably tight. Not only were all of the active records housed there, but the Hokage spent most of his time there as well. Either alone would be a choice target for infiltrators, spies, and assassins, but both together made it the highest priority target in all of Konoha.

And the Hokage's office was even more carefully guarded.

There were dozens of checkpoints and identity screenings done between entering the Tower and being shown into the Hokage's suite, all performed by some of Konoha's most talented and skilled shinobi. And there were always plenty of ANBU hanging around, just in case someone failed a check point.

Then, even if you _could_ reach the Hokage's office undetected, there were still the dozen ANBU and the Hokage himself to deal with, none of which were likely to take an intruder rifling through his desk lightly.

Every single possible way in was under constant monitoring and surveillance, and Team Seven had known it would be futile to try to sneak in using any conventional methods. But as Kakashi had relentlessly drilled them, every security plan had its flaws. The trick was finding a flaw you could exploit.

For example, once the Hokage left for the day, his office was sealed shut. Nothing in, nothing out. And no way of disabling it without alerting the ANBU. Normally, this wouldn't be a flaw. Unless you had managed to sneak into the office and hide there undetected until the place had been sealed. Then you'd pretty much have free reign of the office until morning.

Of course, even if you did make it in, there was still the matter of finding a way out again, through doors and windows that couldn't be opened and the dozens of ANBU crawling all over the tower even while the Hokage was away and his office was sealed up.

As soon as the seals securing the office activated, the little pebble that had unknowingly fallen out of the pocket of the Hokage's Jounin assistant popped back into a human shape with a sharp breath of relief. He touched his face to make sure his mask was still in place; even though he was certain no one would see him, it was better to be safe than sorry. Still, he desperately wanted to take it off so that he could wipe the sweat from his forehead.

Holding himself into a pebble shape for so long had been a lot more difficult than he'd thought it would be. If the old man had stayed for even twenty more minutes… Well, he decided, no use pondering might-have-beens.

He took out two seal strips, already active and coated in his blood, and used them to summon anata bunshins of Sasuke and Sakura, both as masked and covered as Naruto was. Sakura immediately turned to him and hugged him.

"I was worried," she whispered. Even Sasuke grunted. Naruto grinned sheepishly and went to stand watch, listening for any hint that someone might be coming and glad that his part in all of this was over. Because Sasuke and Sakura, he knew, had the hard part of actually finding what they were looking for. Naruto read far too slowly to be of any real help, so he'd been set to watching and listening, making sure nobody was coming back. He crouched in front of the door and began examining the sealing structure as he waited.

It was a good thing they had time, because even with both of them looking it had taken a full two hours before they made any progress at all.

"I've found our second objective," Sasuke called to them.

"Good, then you can start helping me look for the first," Sakura said, not even bothering to look up from her stack. Naruto saw Sasuke's eyes flash with the Sharingan as he memorized the papers in front of him, then carefully returned it all exactly as he'd found it.

"Never mind," Sakura said. "Here it is." She paged through it, speed reading the material. Naruto shook his head, knowing he'd never be able to read anything so quickly, much less memorize it. Sasuke glanced through the pages with his Sharingan, then they both nodded they were through with it. It took them a handful of moments longer to clean Sakura's stack of papers up again, then they looked around the room to make sure nothing was out of place.

"Ready?" Naruto asked. They nodded, and then they all three dispelled themselves with small puffs of smoke. Kage bunshin, after all, didn't need a way out.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

In theory, any Konoha nin who found a hole in the village's security was supposed to report it to the High Jounin. Kakashi thought that this was generally a good policy and did report things from time to time.

In practice, though, Kakashi was one of the best shinobi Konoha had ever produced, and he'd learned long ago that you never knew when you might need a way out of wherever you happened to be, even if it was your own village. So he'd decided that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing to be able to breach your own village's security, so long as you were good enough, anyway.

He didn't consider this treasonous of him, just practical. And besides, there were entire departments dedicated to village security. He'd have felt simply awful showing them up all the time. Especially since, as Kakashi _was_ one of the best shinobi Konoha had ever produced, he seriously doubted they'd ever be able to come up with a security system he couldn't bypass, given time.

That wasn't to say the security for the Hokage's office was easy to get through. On the contrary, it was one of the most secure places he'd ever seen. Of course, he had had a hand in making it that way, back when he'd had a much more vested interest in the Hokage's security.

One of the security precautions in the Hokage's office included an air filtration and ventilation system that was completely cut off from the rest of the building. The idea was that, in the event an enemy managed to set off a gas anywhere else in the tower, the Hokage's office could be sealed off and safe from contamination.

The builders had taken care to ensure that the shafts for this secondary ventilation system were small enough that not even a very young child could fit through them. But even if there was a shinobi small enough to crawl them, the grates on either end were slatted with only a quarter inch of space between them, and were held to the wall with seals which would summon the Anbu if broken.

They had not been so careful with the tower's regular ventilation system. Given that it had to cover the entire building, the ventilation shafts were much larger—just large enough that Kakashi could slither through them on his belly, so long as he'd removed his Jounin vest and utilities pouches.

Kakashi had had the chance to memorize the exact layout of these shafts back when the Fourth had been in office and had let him have basically free reign of the tower's security. So he knew exactly where he was going as he inched through the shafts, silently cursing at the bends and determined he would have to increase his flexibility training after this. Crawling through had been much easier when he was still in his teens.

He found he was rather indignant over that fact.

He wriggled through the last bend with no small relief and felt for the marker he'd left all those years ago. Finally, his fingers brushed over what anyone else would have taken for just a rough piece of metal, but was in fact his indicator that he'd come to the piece of the shaft he'd made certain was slightly smaller than all the others—just small enough that it would slide forward into the next section without trouble. Kakashi stopped and stretched out his senses to make certain nobody was about, then he began the tedious process of unscrewing the shaft and moving it back and out of his way.

The downside of having two ventilation systems was that it left a bit of dead space in the walls where they overlapped. And there was just enough of it that Kakashi was able to contort his torso so he was dangling down over the secondary vent that went directly into the Hokage's office. Though there seemed to be much less space than there had been ten years ago. He consoled himself that it had to be due to increased muscle mass instead of the increased sake intake.

Though the builders and the security teams had been very careful to keep the grate attached and sealed to the wall, they hadn't bothered to seal the shaft to the grate. Likely, the thought had been that the seals keeping the grate and the wall in one piece were more than sufficient, especially since there was no way anyone could get through the tiny shafts anyway.

Kakashi had thought this ridiculously sloppy as with a direct line of sight a talented shinobi could use any number of jutsu, but when he'd discussed it with the Fourth, he'd just ruffled his hair and been told that nobody would be able to get that far without detection. The following day, Kakashi had set off a smoke bomb when Sensei had been alone in his office, and he'd suddenly been taken much more seriously. Of course, before they could do anything about it, the fox had come. Kakashi was only just now getting around to forgiving the Third and Fourth both for his death, so the hole had never been fixed.

It was a bitch to unscrew the pieces holding the shaft to the grate, especially when dangling over it upside down, all without making any noise or using any chakra, but he managed. Once it was apart, he waited for another few moments even after he used the vent for an abbreviated visual recon of the Hokage's office. And was glad he did.

Because all of a sudden, there was a nearly silent popping sound and a bit of smoke that signaled the release of extra chakra. Then the ninja pulled out two slips of paper, and with two more soft pops two more ninja appeared.

Kakashi rubbed at his uncovered eye to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Because though all three nins were well covered and likely would have been unrecognizable by anyone who didn't know them as well as he did, Kakashi knew exactly who they were.

The why and how of his kids managing to infiltrate the Hokage's office was put on hold as he allowed himself a brief moment of pride mixed with incredulity. Because the brats had managed to break in a full three years younger than he'd himself managed. And with a number of years less training. Then he decided this could only reflect well on his abilities as a Jounin-sensei, so their breaking his record was perfectly acceptable.

Then a shiver ran down his spine at another thought. For if this was what they got up to when he'd only been 'gone' for three days, might the Kami forbid he ever be sent on an extended mission or he'd likely come back only to find they'd taken over the village in his absence.

Then again, if they did, at least the Third would stop trying to talk to him about succession plans…

He shook his head and returned his attention to the situation at hand, watching as they went into a brief huddle then went straight to work. He was pleased that their training was holding, with Naruto acting as a watch while the other two searched for their objective (though he still had no idea what it could be). When Naruto bent to examine the door, Kakashi grew a bit concerned that he might become so involved in the seal work he knew covered all points of egress that the boy would either forget to keep watch or try to figure it out and accidentally set off an alarm.

Then Sasuke announced he'd found their first objective, and Kakashi raised his eyebrows. The brats were certainly ambitious, going after multiple targets in the most secure building in Konoha.

Kakashi took mental notes of their mistakes—they were only genin, after all—so that he could both clean up after them and teach them not to do in the future.

Sakura found the second shortly after Sasuke had, and they did an admirable job covering their tracks before disappearing in small puffs of smoke. Kakashi shook his head. Only his brats would break into the Hokage's office without actually being there at all. Rather ingenious of them, really.

He waited another hundred count before getting to work himself.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Back at Kakashi's apartment, Team 7 was sitting on the front stoop where they were inconspicuously conspicuous. There were at least a dozen shinobi who lived in Kakashi's building, making it much more visible than his clan house, and they'd made sure the shinobi had seen them lounging around after dinner, reading and talking and contemplating where their sensei might be. And even, at one particularly opportune time, the boys had started rough housing in response to some pointed comments. That three Jounin happened to all be near enough that they'd certainly noticed had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Naruto _loved_ that kage bunshin let him make his own alibi.

When the kage bunshin dispelled from the Hokage's office, Sasuke and Sakura both jolted slightly. Naruto, on the other hand, had been using so many so often, he kept right on talking without even a hitch in his voice as he processed the information from his clone.

They stayed out on the stoop for another twenty minutes before calling it a night and heading in.

"Well?" Naruto asked when they were safe inside Kakashi's well sealed walls. Naruto knew very well they were sound proof, in addition to a whole host of other protections. After all, Naruto had done the sealing.

"On the plus side, it didn't appear the complaints were driven by the whole, you know." Sakura waved her hand at Naruto's stomach in explanation. "But on the minus side, it seems like they all have some sort of grudge against Sensei."

Sasuke nodded in agreement with her analysis.

"There were complaints, then," Naruto stated. He'd hoped Ino had been wrong, but had learned long ago that it made much more sense to prepare for much worse.

"Ino wasn't lying. Three Jounin-sensei complained about Kaka-sensei," Sakura said, eyes and voice as flat and angry as Naruto had ever seen her. "So the Hokage is doing an evaluation to determine whether he gets to stay in command of Team 7."

Naruto's nails bit hard into his palms.

"It's why Genma is showing up instead of Kaka-sensei, or instead of putting us on leave," Sasuke said. "He's evaluating our skills so he can provide a recommendation to an evaluation panel." Naruto hadn't thought Sasuke could be more blank or emotionless than he'd already seen him, but he had reached new heights. Of course, Sasuke was ass-backwards with everything, and the less he showed, the more he felt.

Which meant Sasuke was feeling more than Naruto had ever seen.

"So what do we know about this evaluation?" Naruto asked.

"The Hokage has commissioned a review and evaluation panel," Sakura explained. "They look at the complaints and the independent genin evaluation and a response from the Jounin-sensei under review. And they usually question all of the Jounin involved. Then sometimes they'll question the genin, too, before making a recommendation to the Hokage."

"And it's scheduled for one week, when Kakashi-sensei gets back from his mission," Sasuke added.

"What did you find out about that?" Sakura asked, not having seen that file in the Hokage's office.

"It was all coded," Sasuke hedged, glancing quickly to Sakura then away. "But I know he's out looking into something, and was expected to be gone ten days, starting three days ago."

Naruto cocked his head in question while Sakura wasn't looking, and Sasuke responded by cutting his eyes directly to her, then looking back at him significantly.

And Naruto understood why he'd prevaricated. It probably wouldn't be good for Sakura to know Kakashi was looking into her parents' deaths.

"So what's our plan?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Prove Kaka-sensei has done a good job teaching us," Sakura said, a hard edge to her voice Naruto wasn't used to hearing there. "And prove it any way we can."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

_Those brats, _Kakashi thought fondly. They were using both his apartment _and _his clan house. And he'd found Naruto had made inquiries all throughout the red light district for him. (Kakashi still found it a bit awkward the girls seemed to all know he was Naruto's sensei, and made mention of it every single time.)

It was a good thing he hadn't planned to go to any of those places. Though it was nominally annoying that he _couldn't_ had he wanted to.

He slipped into one of the dozen or so little bolt holes he had secreted away throughout Konoha and began reviewing its security. Once he was satisfied that nothing could easily get in without his notice and that he could easily get out without anyone noticing, he sat down to contemplate what he'd found in the Hokage's office. And to plan.

Danzo, it appeared, had been a larger pain in the Hokage's ass than he'd ever realized. And was responsible for far more than he'd ever thought possible. Before now, Kakashi had never thought him to be more than an annoyance, an old war hawk who was worth only limited concern and attention.

It was time for that to change.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sakura knew she was the weakest of team seven. She'd known the boys were quickly leaving her behind from the moment Naruto had created his first onigiri clone. Oh, there had been signs of it before that, of course, but Sakura had managed to dismiss them. Onigiri bunshin blew all of that away.

That was when she'd realized that if she'd wanted to keep up, she would have to make her own way. Not follow after Sasuke trying to mimic him in hopes he would pay attention to her like she had done at the Academy. (Not that she'd want to do that anymore anyway. She didn't need to; he already acknowledged her and she spent most of her waking hours with Team 7.) And she couldn't follow Naruto or Kaka-sensei either, because the fact of the matter was that _none_ of the boys used anything that was well-suited to her strengths. In fact, it was mostly the opposite as they were focused on areas that used her weaknesses. She did not have massive chakra stores for a ninjutsu specialist. The illogical sequences of fuuinjutsu made her head hurt. She didn't have the body for taijutsu, and no strength to back it up. And she had no bloodline—or, indeed, any family history of shinobi skills—to fall back on.

But that was alright. Sakura had wanted something of her own anyway. So she'd spent some time researching different areas she could pursue. She dabbled briefly with kenjutsu and weaponry, but she'd dismissed those quickly. Genjutsu intrigued her, but while she had the chakra control to be good at it, she lacked the imagination to truly become excellent. Then she'd stumbled across medical jutsu. And promptly fallen in love.

It required chakra control honed to a razor sharp point and a massive amount of book learning to understand how the body worked. Both of which played in perfectly to her strengths.

Kakashi had been quietly proud of her for finding her niche—teaching her what little he knew and directing her to some scrolls and books he said he'd been told were excellent primers.

Sasuke hadn't said anything, but after training one day she'd found a dozen scrolls in her pack detailing healing techniques. The Uchiha crest stamped at the top of them told her exactly where they'd come from.

But Naruto—crazy, lovable Naruto. _He'd _gotten the most legendary medic nin _ever_ to agree to be her teacher.

Then she'd promptly sided with Sasuke against him, and had almost lost him for good. The depth of self-doubt Naruto had deep inside him still made her worried and a bit frightened for him. But she'd promised herself that she'd be a better friend and help him and all of her loved ones, and not lose anyone anymore. And she'd promised she would make up with her parents and explain it to them both what it meant to be a kunoichi.

Then she'd come home and found she'd really lost her parents. And had suddenly lost herself. It had only been because of her team that she'd managed to come out of her grief. She still couldn't remember much from those first days other than their constant presence.

And now, someone was trying to take Kaka-sensei away from her, and maybe break her entire team apart.

Sakura narrowed her eyes as she unconsciously snarled. Over her dead body.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"You," Sakura pronounced, pointing angrily at Tsunade. "I've had enough of your evasions and put-offs and half-assed remedial lessons. You're going to start taking me seriously, and you're going to start actually training me, and you're going to do it now."

Tsunade only cocked an eyebrow as her mouth twitched.

"Well?" Sakura demanded to know.

"Well, finally," Tsunade replied, rolling her eyes. "I've been wondering when you'd come to me seriously."

Sakura blinked. "Um, what?"

"What, you didn't think all you'd have to do was show up and learn, did you? That idiot teammate of yours can line up whatever he wants for you, but you're the one who has to knock it down. Not even to clear me of all the debt I've ever accrued would I take on an apprentice I didn't think made the cut."

"But I do?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade gave her a disdainful once over before sniffing in derision.

"Barely," she scoffed. "The first cut anyway, I suppose. We'll see."

Sakura nodded, determined to show her mettle. She'd never be so weak as to allow others to take away her loved ones ever again.

She didn't catch Tsunade's self-satisfied grin as she turned away.

"We're in the middle of a lot of work here, you know, trying to get this school up and running," Tsunade said. "I expect you to pull your own weight. Starting now. An herbal delivery was just made. Go deal with it."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So I hear you've been asking after me."

Jiraiya didn't start when Naruto sat down at his table without so much as a by-your-leave. The kid was good, but there was a reason Jiraiya was considered a legend. He did, however, raise an eyebrow at Naruto's statement. It was true, of course, but in his asking it, it answered more of his questions than his past few nights of inquiries had.

"Oh?" Jiraiya asked. One of the easiest ways of getting information was, surprisingly, to say nothing at all and let the other person fill it in for you.

Naruto just grinned and tilted back in his chair. Jiraiya wasn't sure if he knew that trick, or was just being annoying. Given what he knew of the brat, he thought the two had even odds.

"Is that so. What have you heard?" Jiraiya asked, on the off chance Naruto simply hadn't understood and filled in the unspoken question.

"Why were you asking around about me?" Naruto countered.

Jiraiya poured himself another saucer of sake and took a long, slow sip. Because he'd been asking to find the truth of what Naruto had told him in the Wave about growing up in Konoha's red light district, and trying to find out how and why he'd ended up there when he'd been assured time and again by the Third that Naruto had been safe and well.

Unfortunately, all he'd found was that none of his usual sources of information in the Akasen were forthcoming when he'd brought up Naruto's name. Everyone had suddenly become blind, deaf, dumb, and very busy somewhere else as soon as he'd asked.

'_Oh yeah, that kid,'_ and a shrug to go with it was the most Jiraiya had gotten out of anyone.

And apparently, they'd gotten word of it all back to Naruto. Which answered the question of whether they were afraid of him, or afraid for him. Something he'd been more than a little concerned about, given Naruto was shinobi-trained, and for all that those who lived behind the red line lived rougher, tougher lives than any other in Konoha, it meant little when facing a shinobi.

"Is it a crime to want to find out more about my newest pupil?" Jiraiya asked. Though, he considered, the resolution of his conversation with the Third after what he'd found out about his newest pupil might result in a crime.

Jiraiya did not consider growing up an Akasenko safe _or_ well.

Naruto appeared to be considering him and his words. Then he shook his head.

"I know most people don't think much of us, but we protect our own. And no matter how often you visit, you're not one of us. Even people who don't like me will keep that business from those who live on the other side of the red line." He paused, then gave a wry grin. "Well, so long as there isn't anything of theirs at stake, anyway."

"Honor among thieves?" Jiraiya asked, jokingly.

"More like we all give each other home field advantage," Naruto responded in kind, waving around him even as a serving girl set down another bottle of sake with a brief bow and left.

Jiraiya was certain Naruto hadn't even ordered it.

"Now I have something important to talk to you about." Naruto dropped his chair back down to all four of its legs and leaned forward on his elbows.

"Oh?" Jiraiya tried again, and this time Naruto obliged him.

"Kakashi-sensei has been put on review. Sasuke and Sakura and I want to make sure he comes out of it smelling like roses. I want you to help."

This time, Jiraiya was startled. He'd heard the rumors, of course. That such an old-timer as Kakashi had burned out long ago. He hadn't realized anyone had taken it seriously. Then again, he considered, the majority of people _were_ likely stupid enough to fall for Danzo's schemes.

Jiraiya had long ago lost his faith in the general intelligence or goodness of man.

"Hm," Jiraiya mused. "I'm surprised three complaints were made at all, much less in the few months he's had you three. I suppose I shouldn't be, though."

He could see Naruto about to explode in defense of Kakashi, and waved his hand to stop him.

"No, no, kid. I meant that Kakashi's always been picked on because he's always been one of Konoha's brightest stars." _Brightest stars?_ Jiraiya asked himself incredulously. _I must have had more sake than I realized._ "He's in line to be the next Hokage, you know, and that makes a lot of people jealous."

Jiraiya found Naruto's contemplation of that last bit fascinating. He hadn't known someone could go through so many mental gymnastics in so short a time.

"But _you _like him, right?" Naruto finally asked. "So you'll help us, right?"

"Sure, brat," Jiraiya said, taking another sip of the excellent sake Naruto had bought him. "Now scram."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So, you're evaluating Kakashi, are you?" Jiraiya asked from his perch in the window. That he could arrive there unannounced by the ANBU just demonstrated his prowess in the shinobi arts.

"If such a thing were true, how might you have come to possess such information?" the Third asked. "Surely it isn't being bandied about the hot springs you frequent."

"Oh, I have my ways."

"Did they include breaking into my office?"

Jiraiya's eyebrows rose in surprise as he pushed off the window and headed for one of the chairs. This looked to be a longer and much more interesting conversation than he'd thought.

"No," he replied bluntly. "Are you saying someone managed that?"

"Mm. Though who, how, and why is still a mystery. Nobody saw anything and none of the security seals were touched. Nothing was missing, and nothing was out of place. You can imagine that we're more than a little concerned over this breach in security."

"If all of what you say is true, then how could you tell?"

The Hokage steepled his hands in front of him and leaned forward on his desk.

"We have fail-safe after fail-safe, of course," he said. "None dealing with entry or exit were set off. The one which reacts to any chakra usage was. It's also the only one that doesn't alert the ANBU in real time, and is checked every morning when the office is unsealed."

The Hokage did not tell him that it was checked when they watered his office plants. The ANBU found it rather degrading to be set menial chores, but the chakra sensitive plants the First had left were far more important than most of them knew.

Besides, there had to be some perks to being Hokage.

"Hm," Jiraiya mused. "Well, it wasn't me. I hate to give up my sources, but I suppose I can share that one of the kid's brats came to me about it."

When the Third raised an eyebrow in interest, Jiraiya took it as an invitation to continue.

"Oh yes, they know all about the review. They're as dangerously angry about it as I've ever seen a genin, and they're doing everything in their power to make you give Kakashi back to them."

The grin on the Hokage's face reminded Jiraiya just why his old sensei was also still considered such a dangerous shinobi.

"Good," was all he said. "Very good indeed."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Good morning, Kuro-sensei," Sasuke greeted the Jounin politely. "Do you mind if I join you for a moment?"

The Jounin gave him a quizzical look, but shrugged, and Sasuke took a seat on the stool next to his. A dango stand wasn't the prime place to speak with the man, but it was the best of the poor choices he'd found after following the Jounin since that morning.

"Sure, kid. What's up?"

"I've come to ask a favor." And that burned deep into his pride. He could practically hear the ghost of his father lecturing that Uchiha did not ask favors, for a true Uchiha never needed one. But Naruto had sworn up, down, and sideways that if he said things exactly this way, it would work. And Naruto seemed born to talk people into doing things they didn't want to do.

For example, getting Sasuke to ask a favor from a Jounin so maladroit he couldn't even detect a genin following him.

Kuro blinked. "From me?"

Sasuke nodded.

"I have found there is a defamation campaign being spread through rumors about my sensei, which has resulted in him being put unfairly on review for supposed negligence of my team's training," Sasuke said. "As a Jounin who has been involved in an A-rank mission with us, I would like you to speak on his behalf. Are you willing?"

"Ah, well…" Kuro rubbed his mouth with his fingers, obviously a long-held nervous habit. "I'm not sure I should get involved…"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"A shame," he said. "I had not wanted to get your genin to speak in your place, but if you are not honorable enough to come forward yourself and would instead lay it on their shoulders, well, I'm certain they would give a far more honest depiction of the events of both Jounin-sensei, anyway. Ja ne."

He slid off his stool and made to leave when Kuro groaned and grabbed for him. Sasuke had to forcefully refrain himself from responding with a kunai point, but stabbing the man probably wouldn't help his cause any. No matter how much he did not like being touched. So instead, he twisted his arm and made a vigorous pull that let him slip out of the hold.

"Yes, Kuro-sensei," he asked blandly.

"When and where's this hearing," Kuro said with a sigh.

Sasuke passed along the details even as he marveled at how well Naruto had predicted the conversation (or con, as Sasuke was more inclined to seeing it) would go. And he didn't notice the keenly interested look of the woman at the other end of the dango stand.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Genma headed into the waiting room with a limp, holding himself gingerly as he sat in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs that lined the walls. He didn't know what strings Kakashi or the Hokage had pulled to get the inquiry held so quickly, but he couldn't help but be grateful for it.

If he ever had to lead Team 7 again, it would be too soon.

Kakashi, he noted, was watching him with what appeared to be amusement on his face. The bastard.

"Are you well, Genma?" Kakashi asked. Genma glared at him.

"Fuck you," he said. Anything else he might have said was cut off when the door to the meeting room was opened and he was called in. Kakashi gave him a two fingered wave and Genma sent him a one fingered salute in return as he hobbled into the hearing.

"Hokage-sama," Genma said, bowing carefully. He stood back up at attention, taking in the rest of the panel convened for the hearing. If he wasn't mistaken, of the five shinobi in the room other than himself and the Hokage, one of them was currently serving as the head of the ANBU division, one was a Jounin who'd previously served as head of ANBU, one was the current High Jounin, one was a retired shinobi who was still thought of as a legend in the community, and one was the head of Konoha's T&I. An illustrious group to serve as a panel for what should have been a simple matter. And a panel that made Genma wonder what the Hokage was playing at.

"You have completed the evaluation?" the Hokage asked him and he nodded. "What are your findings?"

"I can certify with complete confidence that there is absolutely no sign of negligence in the training or care of Team Seven," Genma said. "In my estimation, all three students are well beyond the level expected of rookie Chuunin."

There was complete silence at this pronouncement. Even the Hokage seemed surprised.

"On what do you base this claim?" the High Jounin asked.

"Intelligence gathering and analysis; strategy, tactics and team work; nin, gen, and taijutsu; stealth and tracking," Genma ticked off on his fingers. "Need I continue? They're a remarkably well-rounded team. They each have their specialties, of course, but they all are proficient at the basics and then some. It is my opinion that Kakashi has done far more than required of him in the training of his students."

"I find it interesting that you put intelligence first," Ibiki said. "Why is that."

Genma hesitated, then shrugged.

"They know Kakashi is being reviewed," he said, noting again the surprise on the majority of the panel's faces even as the Hokage and Ibiki simply nodded in acknowledgement. "When I showed up instead of him, they were instantly defensive and suspicious. And they took steps to find out what was going on when I wouldn't tell them. And when I finished their evaluation this morning, they were quite clear in demonstrating to me the level of training they had been receiving."

"Is that why you're babying your ribs?" the retired shinobi asked, a grin showing clearly on his face. He let out a sound that could have been perceived as agreement as he grimaced. Genma was pretty sure it was the pink one that had bruised his ribs. That out of the three of them it had been her to do it was more than a little embarrassing, but she had been particularly vicious in their spar.

"Is there anything else you would like to add, Genma," the Hokage asked.

"If I have permission to speak freely," Genma responded. The Hokage's eyebrows lifted in surprise, clearly curious as to what he might have to say. And the other panel members didn't bother to hide their curiosity, either.

"Permission granted," the Hokage said.

"Then I'd like to say this: Kakashi was give three disasters for students. I read their files, and their assessments, and their psych write-ups before I went to evaluate them, and it was clear to me that they weren't expected to become much of anything. Instead, Kakashi has taken them and in just a few months turned them into _ninja_. The three of them are a cohesive unit and are so far ahead of the curve that I find it ridiculous anybody has even thought to question whether Kakashi has been training them sufficiently."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi stood before the panel, head held high. He'd refused the offer of a seat, believing it better to accept the news standing. He didn't think they would take his kids away (and even if they did, he'd determined he wouldn't stop training them anyway; they lived with him, after all, and even if they did remove him as Jounin-sensei, the kids were just barely old enough to petition for complete emancipation instead of the pseudo-guardianship a Jounin-sensei was given an orphaned genin, so there would be very little the interloper of a Jounin assigned in his place could do about it.).

But that was putting the cart before the horse. He just hadn't realized how nervous he was about the decision until he was actually before the review board.

"We have heard from many of Konoha's shinobi today," the Hokage began, focusing Kakashi's attention back on the present. "I have called every Jounin you served with in the past year to speak, as your qualifications as a Jounin were called into question as well as your teaching methods. We have heard from your students, and their evaluator. And we have had a few volunteers who demanded to be heard as well."

Kakashi's spirits sunk at that. He could only imagine the shinobi he'd inadvertently shown up, or purposely dressed down for stupid mistakes getting their revenge. But surely, _surely_, one or two would speak for him instead of against him.

And if they didn't, he'd just challenge every shinobi in this room to prove their judgment sound. Of them all, the only one he had concerns about defeating was the Hokage himself. He tried to weigh his chances realistically and decided he had better than even odds, so long as the Hokage didn't summon the Monkey King.

"It is the unanimous decision of this panel that the complaints against you are meritless and completely without justification. Team 7 remains in your custody."

Kakashi opened his mouth to protest, then blinked as what the Hokage said registered. And he blinked again.

"The panel is dismissed with my thanks," the Hokage continued on. "Kakashi, if you'd accompany me to my office, I would like to discuss a few items with you before you find your team."

Kakashi nodded, though he knew the suggestion was really just a thinly veiled order.

"You should be proud of your students," the Hokage said as they made their way through the tower up to the Hokage's office. "They made an exceptional effort on your behalf."

"It's flattering they would have spoken so well of me during their interview for you to make mention of it," Kakashi replied cautiously.

"Oh, they did more than that," the Hokage said, clearly amused. He sat and waved at a chair for Kakashi to sit in. This time, Kakashi dared not refuse.

"I understand they convinced a number of Jounin to speak on your behalf and, somehow, most of the others we decided to call to speak of your abilities had somehow managed to accidentally oversee one of their training sessions, often on the same day, at the same time, though in many different training grounds . It was an amazing coincidence."

"Ah, hah hah." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head as he managed a brief laugh. "I'll, uh, make certain to discuss the important of subtlety with them."

"Oh, no, I believe that in this instance, they never intended to be anything but unashamedly blatant in their efforts. I have every faith in the world they can be sly when the situation calls for it." The Hokage took a moment to light his pipe. "By the way, did any of your old ANBU contacts mention to you that an intruder managed to infiltrate my office one night while you were away?"

It was easy to see where the Hokage was leading. And while he was glad he wasn't personally being suspected, that he'd made the connection to his team was more than a little troubling. Such an act could be considered treason.

"Is that so?" Kakashi said. "No, none had mentioned that."

"Mm. A remarkably _sly_ job, too. In fact, we're still uncertain how the intruders slipped through all of our defenses," the Hokage said. "If it happened that you found a certain group of genin were responsible, I would be willing to grant amnesty for such an act, as the circumstances were extraordinary ones which I have no doubt put them under undue stress, so long as I received a detailed explanation for how such a feat were accomplished. In fact, I doubt any record of the offense would even exist after I received my explanation."

"I hear your words, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said solemnly, with more than a bit of relief.

"Good. Because, Kakashi? I want my explanation." The look on the Hokage's face made it clear that as lenient as he was being, he'd be doubly severe should he not be satisfied.

"As you say, Hokage-sama." And he would be certain to give the explanation as soon as he got it himself. Because even though he'd seen them in the office, he had no idea how the kage bunshins had gotten there.

"Good." The Hokage leaned back in his chair. "I expect your team to go far. I have no doubt they'll be promoted in the next Chuunin exams. You are planning to nominate them, aren't you?"

"They're ready," Kakashi affirmed, though it hadn't seemed like much of a question. He wondered if it were unusual for the Hokage to take such an interest in a single team, but had no frame of reference. But then, he supposed, that if the Hokage were to be interested in any genin team, his would certainly be it.

The Hokage nodded once.

"Good. Very good. That should put the last of the rumors on your abilities as a sensei, at least, to rest."

Kakashi stood and bowed, taking this as a dismissal.

"One last thing," the Hokage said. "That man. I trust now you will take it seriously?"

It was Danzo he was referring to, of course, though even in the privacy of his own office, he would not name him without first dismissing the Anbu. Kakashi had thought such precautions unnecessary before. He'd learned better now.

"Very seriously," Kakashi agreed.

"Then I'll just remind you of the old shinobi saying: after victory, tighten your armor."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi found himself tackled the moment he walked back into the house. At first he thought they were simply greeting him, then he thought they were playing. But when Naruto started writing on his foot, he realized it was something else. He twisted and turned, and before they knew what was going on, had them all bound together, back to back.

"What have I told you three about taking on a Jounin?" he demanded.

They stared at him sullenly.

"Well?" he prompted

"That even three on one, in a fair fight we'd lose," Sakura finally gave in with a sigh. "But it wasn't supposed to be a fair fight! And we only needed another few seconds anyway."

Kakashi bent his leg so he could see what Naruto had been trying to write on the bottom of his foot.

"Do I want to ask what you were trying to do to me?" he asked archly.

"We couldn't find you," Naruto said, lip turned out a hair. Kakashi was a bit amused at the pout—a real one, as he'd finally come to recognize the slightly larger one as part of Naruto's cons. "You were gone, and we couldn't find you. We decided to fix it so that couldn't happen again."

Kakashi tilted his head, then slipped off all of their shoes to find identical smudges on their right feet. If he hadn't seen all three of them in a row, he'd have thought it a birth mark.

"I take it mine would fade to this as well?"

Naruto nodded.

"What's it for."

"Let me activate yours and you'll find out," Naruto said with a pout. Kakashi just gave him an arch look. That was the pout that had managed to swindle him out of more bowls of ramen than he cared to think about.

"We decided," Sasuke said, returning Kakashi's look with one of his own that was the epitome of Uchiha arrogance and condescension, "that we always want to be able to find each other."

Kakashi grinned. "That's a good thought. But I'm a Jounin, and there are times when I'll need to be somewhere that you can't follow, even if you need me."

Sasuke scowled while Sakura scrunched her nose and Naruto sighed. Kakashi grin just got broader.

"Now let's go celebrate. I'm thinking barbecue. Last one out the door treats," he tossed over his shoulder, leaving them to escape from the bonds on their own. When he turned back to the door, he found all three of them already waiting for him and the neatly coiled rope heading towards his head at an alarming rate. Who said it was difficult to motivate teenagers?

"Tch, too slow," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "I'll expect better tomorrow. I'm going to find out exactly how much you let slide while I was away, and show you exactly why you should have made certain nothing slid at all."

Their groans were music to his ears.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It wasn't often that Kakashi found himself meeting with the Hokage and the High Jounin twice in as many days. Luckily, this second time he found himself in the company of all the other Jounin-sensei.

"I trust you're all aware of why you're here," the Hokage started, looking them all over. Kakashi didn't bother nodding, though he saw some who felt the need to, while some others actually shook their heads. He wondered how they'd become Jounin in the first place.

"The Chuunin Exams will shortly be held in Konoha. You may submit your nominations to me today. We'll start with the three rookie genin teams."

The Hokage looked directly at him, and Kakashi didn't disappoint.

"Under the name of Hatake Kakashi, I nominate Team Seven, consisting of Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura."

There was an explosion of sound at his pronouncement.

"A rookie team?"

"I thought he was under review?"

"How could they be ready?"

"I've held my team back for three exams, and he thinks they can go to their first?"

"But he's just a burn out…"

"Enough!" the Hokage demanded, silencing the room immediately. "If you feel you have a valid protest, make it to me now, under your own name."

"I've already done so, Hokage-sama," Asuma said.

And the room went from silent to deathly still.

"Ah, yes. The so-called complaint you levied against Kakashi was dealt with in a formal review, which ended yesterday," the Hokage said. Kakashi would have sighed if it wouldn't have sent more of a message to the other Jounin than he wished to make.

"All complaints were found to be meritless," the Hokage continued. "Among others, Jiraiya and Tsunade both spoke on his behalf."

Kakashi saw Asuma's back go stick straight.

"But Hokage-sama," Kurenai interjected, and Kakashi could tell it was more for Asuma's sake than against Kakashi's character. He still found it annoying.

"No. I convened five of the most senior shinobi to sit on the review panel, which was held in strict accordance to the regulations governing such a thing. The decision was unanimous. Furthermore, I want to make it clear to all here: I do not appreciate my time being wasted. I especially do not appreciate my time being wasted when my Jounin use that which is meant to protect children to further petty squabbles. If there is a true concern, I want it addressed. If there is only animosity or jealousy between two Jounin, I expect you to act as a proud shinobi of Konoha and put it aside while acting in your official capacity. If this happens again—if my time is wasted again because one Jounin-sensei filed a complaint against another Jounin-sensei over a childish squabble—there will be consequences."

The silence following his pronouncement was oppressive.

"Now, we have Team 7 nominated," the Hokage continued after an appropriate pause. "What of the other two rookie genin teams?"

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Mou, take one of these, will you?" Kakashi told his team as they ate dinner. He wasn't certain when they'd started all having evening meals together, but he wasn't certain it was something he was eager to stop. So for now, he'd just go with it. Besides, he could (and did) leave on his own afterwards.

He watched as they looked first to the nomination forms, then to each other, then, and finally to him.

"The Chuunin Exams?" Naruto finally asked.

"Mm," he agreed.

"Do you… really think we can pass?" Sakura was biting her lip, clearly concerned.

"You're not just going to pass," Kakashi ordered. "You're going to blow the competition completely out of the water. So if you feel you can't, don't bother even showing up."

That got him a few raised eyebrows, but then Sakura and Naruto grinned, and Sasuke even gave a slight nod.

Yes, he thought. They'd do just fine.

And if they happened to smash the other rookie teams while they were at it, well, there was nothing wrong with a little satisfaction at a job well done.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo


	8. Chapter 8

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin **

_by May Wren_

**Chapter Eight**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi wasn't particularly happy to have been called to the Hokage's office. Again. He found it utterly ridiculous that he'd met with the Hokage more during his months as a Jounin-sensei than during his years as an ANBU captain. This was almost certainly because there was a command structure for ANBU captains—they reported to the heads of their divisions, who in turn reported to the ANBU chief, who reported to the Hokage—and no structured reporting system at all for Jounin-sensei.

He couldn't imagine how much of the Hokage's time was eaten up dealing with it all and, while it was likely occasionally entertaining (if most genin got up to even a tenth of what his did, he could see the attraction of the occasional hands on reports), the fact of the matter was that most genin teams spent the better part of six months doing nothing more taxing than a D-rank mission. So he wasn't entirely certain why the Hokage insisted on handing those out himself, when there was certainly a more efficient system.

Passing the final security check to be allowed into the Hokage's suite, Kakashi smiled at the secretary. (New this week, he noted. A particularly curvy, nubile number. The Hokage was a dirty, dirty old man.) He knew she couldn't be nearly as vacuous as her expression indicated, not when ANBU took turns serving as one of the Hokage's last lines of defense, but whoever was impersonating the secretary this week had the act down particularly well.

"Hokage-sama is waiting for you, Kakashi-sempai," she said with a giggle, twirling a pen through her fingers in front of her in such a way as to highlight her assets. Kunoichi then, he decided, as most shinobi—even when they knew they would be impersonating a woman—didn't bother learning kunoichi tricks.

He let his attention be drawn exactly where she had directed and admired the view for a few moments. Because even if it was fake, it was still a nice view. Then he nodded and headed into the office.

It came as a brief surprise to find the office already full, and with most of Konoha's most important figures: Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Yomi, the current ANBU chief who was, of course, wearing the black mask that signified his rank.

Kakashi didn't know the chief's true identity—nobody but the Hokage ever did—because once they donned the black mask, their former identity was subsumed by it. The mask never came off even in sleep, they lived in dedicated space at ANBU headquarters, and they took on the name Yomi until they died or retired. Nobody really knew how many had served as Yomi over the years and guesses ran anywhere from five to five dozen. He supposed it didn't truly matter, as the Yomi were largely viewed as interchangeable. Urban legend among the new ANBU recruits said that there was only ever one Yomi, straight from the pits of the underworld he'd been named after, who would never age, never die, and whose sole purpose was to make their lives misery.

A pretty myth, but Kakashi supposed it served the Chief. For himself, Kakashi was reasonably certain that this was the second Yomi since he'd been aware enough to pay attention. He attributed the appearances of seamless transition to a lengthy one, spanning at least two years, with the new Yomi slowly stepping in more and more until all of the duties had been transferred to his shoulders.

"Ano, am I late?" Kakashi asked, glancing around the room again as he rubbed at the back of his head. With this crowd, being late wouldn't be fun.

"If you are, then I am, too," Taka said, coming straight in and sitting in one of the two remaining chairs. The High Jounin hadn't served on active duty as a field shinobi in more than twenty years, so even though he'd been facing away from the door Kakashi hadn't been startled by his entrance. He did, however, become even more intrigued by why they might have all been brought together like this.

And especially why he'd been asked to join. Because if the Hokage were going to press him to be his successor again and had this entire group behind him, well… he _could _still decline, but it would be much more difficult.

He nervously took his seat and looked to Jiraiya for a clue, but the older man just shook his head.

The Hokage set his pipe down on a dish on his desk and steepled his hands in front of him.

"I have just received confirmation that this will be the largest Chuunin Exam in history," the Third began. "In fact, of the Great Shinobi Nations, only Earth has declined. I believe this in large part due to your team, Kakashi."

Kakashi cocked his head curiously. "Ah, you think my team somehow caused Earth to decline?" If so, he had no idea how that was possible. Well, other than Stone somehow finding out what even Naruto didn't, and then he'd have thought they'd send as many genin teams as possible to try to kill him.

"No, I think the Great Naruto Lagoon and the Great Naruto Bridge are responsible for Cloud and Mist accepting," the Hokage clarified. "And I believe that if there were even slightly less animosity between us, even Stone would have sent an official team."

"Oh, ah, well…" Kakashi trailed off, unsure of the best way to reply.

"This has led to increased participation from our allies and normal participants, who do not want to be outshone and possibly lose revenue to the Great Nations anymore than they already do. Which leads us to the current state of affairs."

"We're going to have roughly 70 foreign teams participating, which means an equal number of foreign Jounin and more than 200 foreign genin," Taka interjected. "The logistics alone of hosting that many foreigners is troublesome, not to mention running an exam for what will be more than a hundred teams once we get the final count of our own in there. But even worse, it's going to be a security nightmare."

"On top of that, my most trusted intelligence analysts has been reviewing reports. In fact, yours, Kakashi, in which you submitted recording your own conclusions as to the failure of the mission to protect the Haruno caravan and your… ah, strongly worded views as to its initial assessment, was one of the integral factors," Yomi said, voice muffled by the mask. "And my analysts have concluded there is at least one Hidden Village preparing for armed conflict with us."

Put more finely, war. Kakashi closed his eyes momentarily, assimilating what he'd just been told and adjusting to it. He knew it was unreasonable to hope his students wouldn't have to see it, but he'd hoped they wouldn't have to quite so young. But such was the life of a shinobi.

"So there will likely be war," the Hokage said. "Though we don't know from which side, and we don't know when. It will be most likely that our enemies will use the Chuunin Exams to gauge our strength. So let us give them something to think on which may make them reconsider."

Kakashi nodded in agreement even as he mourned what was certainly going to be the end of Konoha's easy peace time. Konoha at war was a different village, and one he wasn't looking forward to living in again.

"Jiraiya, Tsunade, your return to Konoha hasn't been a closely guarded secret, but it hasn't been advertised yet. We will be changing that during the opening of the Chuunin Exams," the Hokage said. It was clear this was not a suggestion.

"Of course," Jiraiya agreed. "Though if it's who I think it is behind this, I think that will make aggression more likely instead of less."

The Hokage grimaced, and Kakashi realized Jiraiya had meant Orochimaru. Interesting, as he was a missing nin, so not part of a village capable of mounting an attack. Terrifying, because Orochimaru was one of the Sannin, and one of the best shinobi Konoha had ever produced.

"Kakashi, do you believe there might be any difficulty with your team making it to the finals?" the Hokage asked.

Kakashi tilted his head and considered all he knew about Konoha's genin and what he could extrapolate about the shinobi all of the other nations might feasibly be able to send as 'genin.'

"Not unless they manage to pass a Jounin as a member of one of the teams," Kakashi concluded. "I am not… certain they would lose against a very young Jounin, but one backed up by two genin or, more likely, two Chuunin, would likely cause significant problems. Of course, if they did face that kind of opposition, they'd be more likely to fall back and proceed in an alternate fashion. And even many Jounin would have difficulty finding my team when they wanted to hide."

And if Kakashi's voice hinted at how proud he was over that fact, well, he figured it was his due.

"We'll be vetting the teams," Yomi spoke up. "They'll be able to slip in Chuunin who are young enough since we don't want to show anyone how good our intelligence on foreign village shinobi is, but we'll be denying entry to any and all Jounin, regardless of age."

Taka grinned, tilting his chair back far enough that Kakashi wondered if he was using chakra to keep from tipping over. "Because if we didn't do that, they'd think we either knew far more or far less than we do," he said.

"Good," the Hokage said. "Since your team has raised foreign interests, I expect them to give an exceptional showing. Understood?" Kakashi nodded.

"Then you're dismissed. I believe Taka wanted a word with you."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

When the others had left, the Hokage picked his pipe back up and relit it. Jiraiya glared the whole time.

"If it really is Orochimaru who is behind the movements against Konoha, it is very likely he will attempt to strike at me directly," the Hokage said.

Jiraiya glared harder. Because of course it was Orochimaru and all of the problems associated with him that were coming home to roost, and of course he would make every effort to kill his old sensei. It seemed the old man still had something of a blind spot when it came to the one who'd been his favorite student.

"I know what you're going to ask, and the answer is no," he said, hoping to preempt the entire conversation. Once upon a time, he'd wanted to be Hokage more than he'd wanted to breathe. And once upon a time, the Third had told him in no uncertain terms that if any of his students was going to succeed him, it would be the genius of them, so he should concentrate on more realistic aspirations. Like simply making Jounin.

Jiraiya wasn't sure he'd ever forgiven him for that. Then again, he wasn't sure he'd ever have come so far as a shinobi if he hadn't had that push behind him. And he wasn't sure the old man hadn't known that all along.

And that was what had _really _burned, after he'd started wondering about that. Manipulative old bastard.

Unfortunately, he didn't seem moved by the statement, and just puffed on his pipe.

"I mean it, old man, if you kick the bucket, I'm not taking your desk," Jiraiya said.

"And don't look at me," Tsunade said. "I'm not even active duty. Can you imagine any of the shinobi corps actually accepting me? If it's got to be one of us, I vote Jiraiya."

"Tsunade-hime has the name," Jiraiya pointed out. "Senju still means a lot in Konoha, no matter that you've been doing field research into advanced healing practices for the past few years."

Tsunade looked at him sourly.

"I was not," she countered. "I was gambling and drinking and doing my best to forget this village even existed."

"And while that might be technically true, you can rest assured that my version of events is the one that has been spread throughout Konoha, Fire, and the Elemental Nations," Jiraiya said, a small grin on his face at getting one over on Tsunade. "Only give weight by your immediately starting an iryounin school upon your return."

"Which just goes to show you're better suited to be Hokage than I am, if you can manage that feat," Tsunade rejoined. It was Jiraiya's turn to look sour.

They both turned to their old sensei, who was watching them in amusement as he made smoke circles. Jiraiya _hated _when the Hokage used silence to make his arguments for him. He hated it more when it was so effective.

"Don't give me that look," Jiraiya said. "I absolutely, categorically, undeniably refuse."

"Same here. The job's a damn death sentence, and I'm not nearly fool enough to take the hot seat," Tsunade agreed.

They sat in silence for a good minute, neither he nor Tsunade willing to give an inch.

Finally, the Hokage sighed, set down his pipe, and turned to the window. Jiraiya's attention was drawn, of course, to the Hokage Monument the window framed perfectly. And as always, his gaze fell to Minato, who'd fallen so far before his time.

"Neither of you are my ideal successor," the Hokage finally spoke. "But my first choice died long ago, and the one I would like to appoint is almost as against the idea as the both of you are. All I ask is that, should I fall before he is ready to take over, you not allow Konoha to fall with me and that one of you step in until he is ready. Regardless of your issues with me, I trust that you care enough for certain individuals in this village to act to prevent what would certainly be their own deaths if someone else in this village were to capitalize on events."

Jiraiya kicked the desk hard enough to split the wood and stormed out.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

While typically the only opening ceremony was held prior to the final tournament, it was highly likely that some of the villages would be completely eliminated before the final round of exams and the Hokage had wanted to spread his message as widely as possible. Kakashi still wasn't entirely certain what that message was, other than the general 'Konoha is strong.' He supposed that with the threat of war heavy in the air, that might be message enough. Regardless, the Hokage had wanted an opening ceremony before the exams began, so an opening ceremony was what he got.

Kakashi, with his many years of service, had seen more than his fair share of ceremonial events and so often found all the pomp and circumstance more irritating and bothersome than anything else. But even so, he was reluctantly impressed by the spectacle the Hokage had managed to put on.

Taka had solved the logistical problems of hosting so many foreigners by creating a camp outside the village walls for each ninja village that had sent a team to participate. The camps weren't nearly as comfortable as a hotel would have been, but they were better than the rough sleeping shinobi on missions were used to. And with the multiple ANBU teams stationed to each camp—ostensibly for their own protection from the _other _camps—it was also a brilliant solution to keeping tabs on them all without their being able to object. Because as much as it was being used as a smokescreen for their own spying, there was enough animosity between some of the villages that it held just enough truth to make everyone slightly less jumpy to know that _everyone's _locations were being tracked, including their enemy's.

More than just the ANBU were watching them at the moment, though, as the Hokage had decided a parade would start things off nicely. So the foreigners walked team by team from the Trade Gate to the arena down a pathway lined with every Chuunin Konoha could spare.

That turned out to be quite a lot of Chuunin. Kakashi wondered whether some of them weren't ANBU and clerical nins thrown into the formal Chuunin uniform just for the day to create the spectacle. The crowds of civilians who hadn't been able to get a seat in the arena cheering and gawking behind that line of still and silent shinobi only added to the rather ostentatious display.

A display in which he was about to grudgingly partake. He pulled at the sleeves of his own formal uniform and glared at Sakura for a moment.

"Stop tugging at it, Sensei," Sakura chided, eyes never leaving the Mist nins she was watching.

"I wouldn't have to if you hadn't sent it to the cleaners," he said. "It's just been gathering dust for the past few years."

"Exactly."

Kakashi would have rolled his eyes if he hadn't been cataloging how one of the foreign Jounin moved for later extrapolation and analysis.

He did take the time to give his boys the eye as they sniggered at the exchange. He rather thought they should be on his side in this particular exchange—commiserating with him over sleeves that were just a hair too short and pants that had the slightest bit too much starch in them to be completely comfortable. In fact, the only plus to a Jounin's formals that he could see was that the longer coat allowed him to hide away a good deal more weaponry than the Jounin vest did. That didn't even begin to make up for the inordinate detriments, though.

Then the last of the foreigners had made their way down to the Arena, and it was time for the Konoha contingent to make its presence known. He ran his eye over them all, amused by the mixture of nervous fidgeting, terrified silence, and utter boredom that ran through the ranks. Thirty Konoha teams would participate and while he didn't know how many of them would make it to the finals, he was certain that it would be at least as many as all the foreigners combined.

He and the High Jounin had spent hours going over the strengths and weaknesses of all of the Konoha teams and had at least a thousand contingency plans to make sure of it. Chuunin exams _were_ more exercises in foreign relations than truly about selecting Chuunin, after all, and it wouldn't do for Konoha to have a poor showing at home. So if some Konoha teams were given furtive assistance passing from one exam to the next, and some foreign teams were surreptitiously sabotaged, well, so long as nobody was caught at it nobody would cry foul. Not when they all did the same when they had home court advantage.

"Ready?" he asked his kids, knowing they were. He'd made it very clear to Taka and the planning committee that _his _team wouldn't be in any need of special extra assistance.

"Course we are, Kaka-sensei," Naruto said, bouncing on the balls of his feet as though his body couldn't quite contain his eagerness. Sakura nodded and smiled at him brightly as Sasuke made a noise that he'd come to understand was his version of enthusiastic agreement.

"Good," Kakashi replied.

The dull buzz of the crowd became a screaming roar as the first of the Konoha teams stepped into the parade, and it was time. He grinned and ruffled the boys' hair (only grinning wider at Naruto's indignant protest and Sasuke's disgruntled glare), patted Sakura on the shoulder, and darted off to their place in line before any of them could consider retribution.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

It was later that afternoon when Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stood in front of the building where the Chuunin Exams were scheduled to begin. They looked from the line of Genin waiting to get in, to each other, and back again. The never ending ceremony had been bad enough; none of them had any desire to stand and wait in a never ending line.

"Roof?" Sakura suggested. The boys nodded and Naruto tilted his head for them to follow. Sakura and Sasuke had learned long ago during missions to capture the Daimyo's wife's cat Tora that Naruto had an incredibly detailed mental map of all of Konoha's streets and back alleys. He led them away from the testing building through a handful of back passageways to one that was hidden enough for them to make their jump to the roofs without all the other Genin seeing them. Then they were up to the top and a few short leaps took them back to the testing building.

"Either of you see the roof hatch?" Sakura asked, looking around for the feature which was a common installation in Konoha's buildings, especially those frequented by shinobi.

"Over here," Sasuke called as he found it and pulled it open. From there, it was easy for them to find the third floor and the correct room for them to turn in their tickets and wait for the exam to begin.

There were only a handful of teams already there waiting. An older looking Konoha genin approached them, and Sasuke and Sakura automatically fell in beside Naruto.

"Hey, Konoha rookies, eh?" the guy said. "I'm Yakushi Kabuto. Also a genin, as you can see." He gestured to his forehead protector. "I've taken the Exam seven times now, so if you have any questions, I might be able to help."

"Ano, Kabuto-sempai," Sakura said, voice pitched like a cute girl's instead of the kunoichi she was. It was one of Naruto's favorite cons, as with her bubblegum pink hair and an artful application of eyeliner that made her eyes look _enormous_, quite literally everyone fell for it. He only wished he could pull it off, too. "To take it seven times, your team must be really experienced! Will all of the teams participating this year be as experienced as your team?"

"Oh, some of them undoubtedly," he said, scratching the back of his head in apparent embarrassment. Naruto wondered what this guy's game was; he'd never been old enough to pull the embarrassed expert routine, but he'd seen it often enough to recognize it when it was being used. But to use it on _him_, of all people… He was almost insulted that someone would try such an obvious hook on him. "But there are sure to be a number of rookies like yourselves, as well. Was there anyone in particular you were interested in learning more about?"

He pulled a deck of cards out of his pouch.

"Cards?" Sasuke asked, looking at them curiously.

"Ah, they're special cards," Kabuto said. "I've managed to gather some information about most of the participants this year, and I've transcribed them onto these cards."

"…they're blank," Naruto said from behind him. Kabuto whirled around in surprise.

"They require my chakra to activate them and show their contents," Kabuto explained, trying to get back into control. "For example, let's look at one of your cards, shall we?" He pulled one out and lit it up with his chakra.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he read. "Two A-ranked missions, four C-ranked missions, sixty-seven D-ranked mission. My, that's quite a bit for rookie genin."

Naruto frowned; there was no way a simple genin should have access to mission logs to allow him that sort of information. At least, not outside infiltrating the Hokage's Tower. He scrunched his nose for a moment at the hypocrisy of doubting someone else's loyalty for something he himself had so recently done, then decided it was completely justified. When they'd done it, their first loyalty hadn't been to Konoha, either. Not that the Hokage would ever ever _ever _be told that.

The lecture the old man had given them after Kakashi had made them confess to him were bad enough. The lecture (and subsequent training and demonstrations) from Kakashi had been much, much worse. He shuddered as he recalled them, and how firmly Kakashi had shot down the idea that any genin, no matter how talented, brilliant, or well trained, could break into the Hokage's Tower without leaving any trace.

If Kabuto had done so (as the info cards indicated), then either Kakashi was wrong or Kabuto was not a genin. And if Naruto were a betting man (which he most certainly was), then he knew where he'd lay odds.

Naruto wasn't entirely sure what exactly this Kabuto was, but he knew something about the older genin wasn't right. So they made a bit of small talk until the other rookies came barging in, Ino darting over to practically tackle Sasuke. Naruto's foot in the right place made sure they all toppled over, creating the distraction needed to slip his fingers into Kabuto's equipment pouch and take the deck of cards before the older genin wandered off.

That he also enjoyed watching her tumble gracelessly to the floor was an added bonus. Kakashi may have made them promise no direct retribution, but he'd said nothing about not getting it in more oblique ways.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sasuke had noted immediately when Ibiki had come into the room. He'd been on the panel that had interviewed the three of them when Kakashi had been under review, so they'd done their best to acquire all available intelligence on him. There hadn't been much, other than that he was the head of Konoha's Torture and Intelligence section.

His mind quickly flit through all of what that could mean for the test and what he could do to further their chances of success.

"Alright maggots, I'll only explain the rules to this test once, so listen up and listen good," Ibiki began. Sasuke took a moment to appreciate he'd drawn the correct conclusion before paying strict attention to what he was saying. "In the next room are a series of numbered work stations containing six cups of tea. Three of the teas at each station are poisoned, and three hold the corresponding antidotes. Any single cup of poison drunk without the correct antidote taken immediately probably will not be strong enough to kill one of you; two cups of poison likely will."

He looked around the room to let this sink in, and Sasuke wondered if he was telling the truth. He was likely the single most difficult person to read that Sasuke had ever met, and he doubted whether even Naruto could get a good reading off him unless the older man permitted it.

"In addition to the tea, each team will start off with ten points and a box. All of the boxes are identical, and each contains information about the poisons at their station. Your test will end only when all six cups have been consumed, or when a team has lost all of their points. Only the teams with the highest number of points will pass and be allowed to proceed, so if don't want to fail right off the bat, pay attention. We don't have all day, so you lose three points every ten minutes. Consider it incentive to work fast." Ibiki's grin looked more vicious than reassuring, but Sasuke supposed that it was intended to.

"In addition, if your box is damaged in any way, you lose eight points. If your box is opened without damage, a team gains five points. If any of you are caught cheating, you lose three points. If any member of the team becomes incapacitated, the team loses fifteen points."

Ibiki stepped to the side and waved his hand at the table behind him, where two Chuunin sat ready to hand out numbers.

"Each team will come up to the table and draw a number, which will correspond to one of the work stations set up in the next room. Come," Ibiki ordered. "When you all have your numbers, we'll open the door to the next room and you may begin."

Sasuke followed along behind Naruto and Sakura as they retrieved their cubby assignment, considering the Jounin's words. Being told that being caught cheating would only lose them points and not disqualify them was as blatant an invitation to cheat as he'd ever heard. Though, he doubted they would have to. After all, Sakura was coming to specialize in poisons (and would continue to do so, she'd said, at least until she'd finished learning from Shizune) and the test was technically over when they drank all of the teas.

Sasuke had noted—though he'd wondered how many others had—that Ibiki had not promised the _solution _to the poison/antidote cup identification. But even if the clue inside the boxes did say which cups held poison, Ibiki hadn't mentioned anything about information on the antidotes being in the boxes. And it would do them little good to only know which tea was poison when they didn't know which antidote to mate it to, not when incapacitation meant automatic disqualification even if that hadn't been what Ibiki had called it.

And he doubted cheating would help much, no matter that it wouldn't necessarily get them kicked out if they were caught. For all that he'd said the boxes were identically, Ibiki hadn't mentioned anything about the cups containing the same thing at any given station. No, for all Sasuke knew, every poison cup in the room could contain a different type of poison, and if the arrangement of poison and antidote cups wasn't different at every cubby, well, Sasuke was sure it was only because there were a finite number of iterations when you only had six variables to work with.

He contemplated whether they should even attempt to open their box. It would gain them five points, but it could lose them valuable time. Then again, he doubted he'd be much help to Sakura in figuring out the cups, so he might as well try.

After all, given how Ibiki had described them, the boxes had to be puzzle boxes, else how could there be any possibility it might take more than half an hour to open it? But, then, half an hour was not usually sufficient to solve a difficult puzzle box, not when the whole point of a puzzle box was that it wouldn't open unless you found all of the hidden panels which could be on any side of the box and could slide any number of times in any direction, and only by sliding exactly the right panels in exactly the right direction in exactly the right sequence could the box be opened without damaging it. And forfeiting eight points.

He wondered how many moves there were on the boxes. Certainly more than the three or four moves of the cheapest boxes, but it couldn't be any of the great boxes with dozens of moves, either, for with so many teams competing, the expense alone would have prevented the test from being feasible.

Sasuke frowned as the memory of his father switching him for playing with one while he was supposed to be practicing with his shuriken floated through his thoughts. He frowned harder when he remembered Itachi returning the box in the middle of the night, with a pot of liniment for the marks on his legs hidden inside, and soft words telling him to hide it carefully.

Shaking his head once, he put the memory aside along with the thought of the box's current hiding place in his bedroom in Kakashi's house. And he absolutely refused to allow his mind to drift to thoughts that, before he'd gone insane and killed their entire family, Itachi had been much kinder to him than their father ever had been, for that way lay madness.

He'd flirted with madness in the past, of course, and likely would from time to time for years to come. But the middle of the Chuunin Exams was not an appropriate time to examine how far a slide he'd taken this time.

Naruto lightly bumped into him, a wordless expression of support that wouldn't be noticed by any of the others. Because of course he'd noticed something was wrong. It was somewhat annoying that he couldn't hide it from Naruto (or Sakura, he noted, as she leaned into his personal space), but the easy strength and comfort they freely gave was more than worth the irritation.

Sasuke forced it all out of his mind to concentrate on the task at hand, for Sakura had gotten their station assignment and they were all lining up to head into the testing room.

"So, I'll analyze the cups while you two work on the box?" Sakura suggested, voice pitched softly so it wouldn't carry beyond their small circle.

"Keep careful watch over them," Naruto pointed out, surveying their opponents. "I'm sure some of these folks wouldn't mind adding a few things to some of the teas to make certain to get rid of the competition."

Sasuke made a few miniscule hand signs that indicated he would take the target, and that Naruto should work on intelligence. It wasn't a perfect corollary to what they were doing, but then, sign language never was, and there weren't really signs for, 'I'll work on figuring out the puzzle box while you try to cheat without getting caught.' Naruto quickly signed back in the affirmative though, so he wasn't concerned the message had been mistaken.

They'd barely agreed to their small plan when the doors into the examination room opened.

"Begin," Ibiki ordered them all, and the genin all made a mad dash to their assigned work stations. Team 7 was no different.

Sasuke wasn't certain what he'd expected the work stations to be like, but it certainly hadn't been this. There was row after row of tables laid out with mathematical precision, each surrounded by the cubical walls he'd previously only seen in the bowels of the administrative building he'd had to visit to reclaim the Uchiha district after a particularly greedy foster had tried to have it razed for a building project the foster would have benefited from enormously.

The cubical walls were cheap and flimsy, and would barely stand up to a determined toddler much less trained genin teams, but he supposed that was likely the point. He thought it highly probable that a good quarter of the teams would get frustrated enough to destroy their entire work station, so cheap made sense. And that the teams had been invited to cheat, they needed some pretense of security so that the worst of the teams would be weeded out—either through other teams sabotaging them or through being overly obvious in their own cheating and sabotage attempts.

All in all, Sasuke approved, even as he abhorred the stupid walls and the memories associated with them. Then he considered that the foster was currently working behind walls just like these in the sub-basement of some unimportant office building instead of his previously prestigious position, and reconsidered his dislike of cubicles.

Sasuke's eyes flit over the room and found the number on their chit in a fraction of the time it would have taken normal eyes. There were more benefits to having Uchiha eyes than just the Sharingan, after all. But a movement caught right at the edge of his vision made his eyes flash with it.

The blade moving to Naruto's unprotected side seemed to move in slow motion as Sasuke reacted with all of the speed and skill Kakashi-sensei had beaten into him. He saw Naruto moving before it happened—saw he would grab the enemy's wrist, twisting and bending it as he moved so the kunai wound up in the attacker's own side. So Sasuke was moving in easy concert, following Naruto's measures with his own as he broke the boy's arm in three places.

The attacker screamed once, pitifully, as Sasuke finished the movement by releasing the boy's wrist and using his elbow against the boy's temple to render him unconscious.

Sakura had fallen into a defensive support position, eyes monitoring the crowd for additional threats—a position so long engrained into the three of them Sasuke didn't need to look to see where she was.

The boy was falling to the floor at Sasuke's feet was the only movement in the room. Shocked silence took over for a handful of breaths before the boom of Ibiki's incisive, gravelly voice broke it.

"Team 14, representing the Village Hidden in the Mist: minus three points for cheating; minus fifteen points for an incapacitated teammate. That's negative eight points total. Team 14 is dismissed."

"Wait, _what?_" roared one of the Mist genin's teammates.

"I said you are dismissed, genin," Ibiki repeated. "Congratulations on being the first team knocked out of the first exam. Exit through the door to my left."

When the genin looked ready to protest again, Ibiki pulled a _look._ Sasuke recognized it. it was a look his father had often used.

"Remove your team or I will have your team removed for you."

The teammate who hadn't yet spoken—the one who looked to be the oldest, standing a head taller and a good hand's width wider than Sasuke was—gave Naruto a look he knew meant trouble. But he grabbed his unconscious teammate and his till protesting one and took them from the room.

"Well?" Ibiki prompted. "What are you waiting for?"

The remaining genin scrambled for their work stations even as they gave Team 7 wide berth and cautious glances.

"The plan stays the same," he murmured to his teammates. They nodded.

"I'll keep careful watch at the same time, though," Naruto pointed out. "The other Mist teams look ready for our blood."

Sasuke nodded and turned his focus to the box, picking it up and turning it over and over in his hands. It was a fairly standard example of the craftsmanship required to build a puzzlebox. It was about the length of his hand, so Sasuke estimated it to be four sun. The inlaid design was a repetitive pattern of Konoha's leave symbol. It worked to hide the lines which might otherwise help people know where the panels of wood separated, an important step in figuring out which panel to move when. He turned the box over a few more times, analyzing it, then began to work it between his fingers, testing parts to see what would move and how, and sliding panels back and forth as he prodded at the box to see if there were any pressure points that needed to be released.

_Right forward; turn up; left to the right; turn clockwise; left forwards right back; turn down; panel up…_

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naruto was keeping a vigilant watch out to make sure nobody else would try to disable him or either of his teammates again. He was also keeping a careful eye out for any opportunities to cheat effectively. Which meant _not _being so ham-handed as that Mist team had been. Because, really, trying to stab him while there were twenty proctors in the immediate vicinity? Naruto barely kept from scoffing; just thinking about the attempt made his disdain for the would-be assassin come right back.

His was the only role not actively engaged in passing this part of the exams, but he didn't mind being set the relatively simple duty of guarding the others while they worked. The only thing he knew about poisons was how to use them, and puzzle boxes were what the high born used to keep secrets from each other. He briefly contemplated what would have happened if he'd ever tried to use a puzzlebox to keep one of his secrets secret down in the Akasen and shook his head.

_Yeah, never would've worked. Stolen and/or smashed in about five seconds flat._

So that he wasn't particularly well-matched to either of the tasks didn't bother him. That was why they were a team, after all. And if they'd had to do something else… say, if the task had involved persuading a target to hand over the information about the poisons, well, Naruto fancied himself a bit more suited to that than either of his teammates. But for this he was content being left the grunt work.

Besides, he was better at cheating than they were. He'd already caught four attempts to copy Sasuke's movements with the box, and another two that had attempted to throw off Sakura's work. Naruto had responded with adequate distractions for the former, but he'd responded with prejudice to the latter. If she wound up messing something up, it would be her or Sasuke who would most likely be the ones hurt because of it. Naruto was pretty sure he'd come out alright no matter what, given the Fox.

For that matter, Naruto was inclined to ensure that the teams of the Evil Jounin Who Tried to Take Kakashi Away failed miserably during the first tests, just to humiliate the Jounin. He was pretty sure that eliminating the competition was sideways enough that it wasn't necessarily _direct _retribution, so he'd work around his promise to Kakashi alright, but then, he couldn't justify the possibility of accidentally killing one of his comrades.

No matter how annoying he found some of them.

"Ten minutes. All remaining teams are minus three points," Ibiki announced. Not counting the Mist team that had tried to kill him, twenty-six teams had already been eliminated—three of them from guessing at the tea and having one of their teammates collapse, another eight from being rendered unconscious via sabotage, and about ten from smashing the box, hoping it would have the answers then being caught cheating when they realized it hadn't. Idiots.

Another nine teams had already completed the exam. For four of those teams, one of the members had just drunk all six cups almost immediately. The two teams had simply analyzed the cups quickly enough to drink them before the ten minutes were up. Naruto noted all six teams as having poison specialists for future reference.

He was making a careful survey of the remaining teams. There were about 65 teams left. Of them, he guessed a good fifteen would let time run out before picking a tea out of fear of accidentally killing themselves. Another dozen would likely be eliminated for their cheating within the next ten minutes. The rest Naruto estimated had a fair chance of passing, but with the skill of a number of the saboteurs, he thought probably only fifteen to twenty would actually make it.

Of the other Evil Konoha Jounin Teams, surprisingly, he found that Kurenai's team would likely be one of the next to pass. Hinata had used her eyes to see through the box for the clue, and then he'd watched Shino use his bugs to test the various tea combinations. He gave them another ten to twelve minutes before they were ready to drink them themselves.

Neji had done the Hyuuga eye trick, too, but as they had no poison specialists, he wasn't sure what their plan was. Team 10 wasn't doing poorly, but could have done better. Shikamaru had fiddled with the box until it was open, but Ino and Chouji hadn't done anything to analyze the tea until after they had the clue. He shook his head at the waste of time.

A soft hiss of satisfaction from Sasuke at minute 18 indicated he'd succeeded in opening the box. Naruto didn't dare turn to look; now it was more important than ever to keep watch over what was going on outside their workstation. He averted five attempts to see what Sasuke had pulled out of the box, three of which resulted in the teams being eliminated.

"Switch," Sasuke said, handing over the box to him. Naruto was startled for a moment, until he saw the scroll Sasuke had left on the table for him and it became obvious Sasuke wanted him to seal the box away. He wasn't sure why Sasuke wanted to take the box with them, as none of the other teams thus far had bothered, but he was sure Sasuke had his reasons. Probably. And though they hadn't been explicitly forbidden from taking the boxes, neither had they been granted permission. Probably prudent to hide it, then.

He quickly drew a storage seal locked to open only to members of Team 7—a ridiculously easy security feature he'd been shocked so many people didn't bother with. But then, he guessed there weren't too many teams with a sealing specialist, so it would probably be a lot more expensive to get custom made storage scrolls. Their loss. It was a matter of moments for him to activate the seal and roll the scroll up, and a handful more to reverse pick-pocket Sasuke to stick it in his storage pouch.

"Done," Naruto told him. Sasuke took his eyes off of the room only long enough to give him a disgruntled look, saying without words that he knew very well that Naruto's hands had been in his pockets and even if he didn't feel it and couldn't catch it, Naruto should know better by now. Naruto only grinned.

"Twenty minutes," Ibiki announced. "All remaining teams are minus three points." Three teams were kicked out at this announcement.

Naruto did some quick math: ten to start, minus six for time passing, plus five for opening the box left them with nine points. Sakura had thirty minutes to figure it out.

Between he and Sasuke, they managed to get two teams enraged to the point they smashed their boxes (which at that point meant instant disqualification), one team to drink the tea before they were actually ready (leading to the incapacitation of one of their teammates), and one particular hothead to attack them (so they could defend themselves without fear of losing any points, a tactic a few other teams had used in the past 25 minutes as well).

"Hmm, tricky," Sakura murmured. Naruto let his attention split just enough to take in Sakura's expression, her posture. Accomplishment. Relief. She'd figured it out.

"Well?" he prompted.

"Two of the antidotes turn into a poison if drunk together, and all of the antidotes exacerbate the symptoms of the two poisons they don't cure. Interestingly, though, two of the poisons actually counteract each other if taken together," she said.

"They do like to fuck with us," Naruto said with a grunt.

"We only have two and a half minutes before we're docked three more points, and they haven't told us the point cut off for actually passing. Which should we drink, Sakura," Sasuke said.

When she handed them out, Naruto gave them both a grin.

"Kampai!" he toasted them, then drank one after another, barely taking a breath. His teammates followed suit, and they presented themselves to Ibiki for inspection.

"Nine points," he said, giving them a chit with the number 9 written on it. "Pass through the door behind me."

They went through the door in careful formation, well aware that the teams who'd already completed could be ready to further thin out the competition. Instead, they found a table with three Konoha Chuunin waiting for them and nobody else.

"Chit?" one of them demanded. Sasuke held it up cautiously.

"Good. Make sure you hold onto it. Next exam is at the Forest of Death and begins in two hours. You'll give that chit to the proctor when you get your assignment. Now get out of here."

"I see," Sakura said. "The points didn't matter then, or, only mattered in the negative?"

One of the Chuunin grinned. "And made sure everyone wanted to get done as quickly as possible," she said. "Now scram."

And as they raced to the Forest of Death, Naruto noted he wasn't the only one of them grinning madly. They were going to _trounce _this entire exam.


	9. Chapter 9

**Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin **

_**by May Wren**_

**Chapter Nine**

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"You passed 38 teams?" Anko asked. "I thought you were going to make your test hard."

"You'll note that twice that number failed," Ibiki pointed out. "And that only half the remaining teams are foreign."

"What's the breakdown of that?" Taka asked.

"Five Mist, four Sand, three Cloud, three Grass, and one each from Sound, Waterfall, Rain, and Haze," Ibiki answered.

"Get rid of Sound and Haze immediately in the second exam," Taka ordered. "A new village and one known for its stupid ninja can't go forward."

"Agreed."

"Of the rest, make sure no more than one team per village is allowed to proceed."

"Understood."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

The members of Team 7 had been sizing up the other teams as they waited for the exam to begin. Naruto had surreptitiously pointed out to his teammates the few he'd marked as poison experts in the first exam. At Sasuke's signal, Naruto and Sakura's attention shifted to the Konoha examiners, who had gathered together and appeared almost ready to start.

"Alright, you brats, shut up and listen," a woman with purple hair began, cutting through the assembled genins' chatter easily. "I'm Mitarashi Anko, Chief Examiner for the second phase of these Chuunin Exams. In a few moments, we'll be assigning each team a randomly selected entrance gate into Training Ground #44, also known as the forest of death. The goal of this exam is to survive the forest and each other until you acquire 25 points, then make it to the tower in the middle of the forest within five days and with all of your teammates alive and conscious."

She paused there and smiled—a wicked grin

"All of you got a wooden token with a number burned into it at the end of the last exam. If you lost it, you're screwed and it's not my problem so don't come whining to me," she said.

Naruto's eyes were scanning the crowd to see which of the genin made tells that they were holding on to their little pieces of wood. He was pleased to have caught about ten of them out at it, and even more pleased that Sasuke made no move at all.

"Numbers on your chits range from two to ten, and that number is how many points it's worth. And in this exam, anything goes for getting those tokens from each other. Now get your asses in line so I can start giving you your entry gates. Oh, and by the way, you'll also have to sign waivers. Wouldn't want to get in trouble in case any of you die."

Naruto held back a giant grin as Anko finished her explanation. No mention was made of having to fight for the chits, or even of them having to obtain them while they were in the forest. So while everyone was milling around, waiting for everyone else to sign the waiver forms and get their gate assignments, Naruto went to work.

"I have a plan," Naruto said, voice low; Sakura and Sasuke gave him their full attention. "Just follow along with me as we get into line, and signal me if anyone starts looking at me too hard, alright?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes but didn't protest as Sakura nodded. Naruto took a rather circuitous path as he carefully made his way through the gathered genin, picking easy marks as he went. By the time they were at the front of the line to receive their gate assignment, Naruto had managed to pick the pockets of about three dozen genin, though he'd only managed to snag five tokens.

"Got 'em," Naruto murmured as they ducked into the tent.

"Hmm, you three are Kakashi's brats, aren't you," Anko said, giving them the eye. "Sure as shit don't look like much, no matter what I've heard."

"Ano, there is an old shinobi proverb, Mitarashi-sempai," Sakura said, the very picture of diffidence and respect. "It is a great ability to hide one's abilities."

Anko snorted. "Sure, kid. Whatever you say. You brats are at gate 32. Listen for the starting gun—gates will only stay open for five minutes then you're either on the inside for five days or you forfeit. Now scram."

"I got three twos, a seven, and a six," Naruto said quietly as Team 7 settled into place at their assigned gate.

"You picked their pockets, didn't you," Sakura said, shaking her head. "I was even watching you and I didn't see you take them."

"Ah hah, well, you know." Naruto scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. "Practice makes perfect?"

Sasuke snorted and Sakura just grinned.

"I guess it does. Good job, Naruto-kun. With our nine, that makes 28. So we should run straight for the tower, full speed," Sakura suggested. "No point in getting into a fight when we already have the points."

"I was hoping for some serious opponents," Sasuke complained in distaste.

"Would you rather get into random fights or make Chuunin?" Naruto asked. "Because we have no idea what's supposed to come after this, and I for one would rather be fresh for it."

"Tch," Sasuke tisked, but he didn't offer any more complaint. Then the gun sounded, and they were off. When they reached the tower twenty minutes later, jaws dropped. Iruka and the two other Chuunin who were guarding the entrance to the tower were speechless. The Jounin watching from the monitors set up on the top floor of the tower, however, were not.

"Twenty minutes?" Kurenai was saying in disbelief. "Twenty minutes? How is that even possible? That doesn't just break the old record, it obliterates it."

Asuma picked his cigarette up from where it had fallen out of his mouth.

"That should be impossible," he said. "They would have had to sprint straight here from the gate to get here so quickly. There's no way they could have stopped to fight anyone for a single chit, much less five of them."

Kakashi just smiled.

"The sexy and deadly Anko is now here!" Anko yelled, bouncing into the room. "I sure gave those twerps something to think about. So what's up?"

"Kakashi's brats already made it," Hayate said.

"What!" Anko shrieked. "But… but… what! Kakashi, did you give them an extra chit?"

"Of course not," Kakashi said, affronted at the thought that his students would need the help.

"Besides, even if he did, they got here with six of them," Asuma said, glaring at Kakashi.

"Six?" Anko yelled. "They must have cheated. Kakashi, what did you tell them."

"My students are exceptional shinobi," Kakashi said, projecting his displeasure in his voice. "They would never have needed me to help them figure out such a simple task."

"Why you little…" Asuma and Kurenai had to hold Anko's arms to keep her from gouging Kakashi's remaining eye out at that.

"But as for cheating…" Kakashi shrugged. "Well, all you told them was to bring 25 points worth of tokens to the tower. So really, could it have been considered cheating?"

"But how could they have?" Anko whined. "I was watching them the whole time."

"Well," Kakashi said, rubbing his chin in thought. The others leaned in, wondering what he was going to say.

"They're tricky little devils."

The other Jounin groaned in exasperation.

"They are indeed," Ibiki agreed as he entered. "For not having a poison user on your team, they got through my test with the second highest score awarded."

"Really?" Kakashi sat up at that, looking at him with ill-concealed interest.

"Mm," Ibiki said. "A 9 is very solid. 15 were technically possible, but nobody actually got higher than a 10."

"And they just got here with six tokens!" Anko complained. "In under 20 minutes! Kakashi, you're creating little monsters here."

"Monsters?" Kakashi scoffed. "No, I'm creating the next leaders of Konoha. If my guess is right, they'll all be promoted to Chuunin in this exam. And they'll make Jounin before they hit 15. Unless, of course, they burn my Icha Icha collection again, in which case I'll probably have to murder them all in their beds."

All the Jounin in the room blinked at him with incomprehension clear on their faces.

"Are they really that good?" Kurenai finally asked hesitantly, wondering if she shouldn't have signed up to be a Jounin-sensei if this were what was expected.

"Tch, of course not," Asuma drawled, reassuring her. "Just typical bragging. All the Jounin-sensei do it. Kind of an informal competition to say if my genin are better than yours, obviously I'm better than you."

"Funny, then, isn't it?" Kakashi said with a smirk that reminded Ibiki of Naruto. "That it's my kids who are blowing everyone else out of the water? Goodness, if the 'dried-up old Jounin,' the 'burn out resting on his laurels,' produced kids like this, what does that say about the rest of you? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to see to my team."

Ibiki got up and left with him, drawing a raised eyebrow from the Copy-Nin.

"Don't mind if I tag along, right?" he asked. "After all, I'd like to see the great Jounin-sensei at work. It must have been some doing to get them to be using ANBU signs so easily it's second nature."

Kakashi shrugged and continued walking.

"They're naturals," Kakashi said. "Sasuke and Naruto will be ANBU within a year. Sakura will most likely follow, because Team 7 sticks together with everything. Better for them to start using it now and get it right than to fumble with it under some inept rookie captain."

Ibiki didn't have anything to say to that. He imagined that even if he had, Kakashi would completely disregard it anyway.

"So," Kakashi drawled as he found the room his team had been given for use until the second exam was over. "You guys made it already, hunh?"

"Of course!" Naruto said. "Like some wimpy tests would stop us."

Sakura rolled her eyes and Sasuke grunted his agreement. Ibiki gave Kakashi a raised eyebrow.

"Your team's a little cocky, don't you think?"

"It isn't arrogance if it's true," Sakura said primly. Naruto and Sasuke both snickered.

"Ma, ma, that's enough," Kakashi said mildly. Ibiki was impressed at the genins' immediate change in demeanor as they fell into line with serious expressions and alert postures at Kakashi's mild words. "Report."

As the genin took turns briefing their sensei on the first two exams, Ibiki found his respect for them and Kakashi growing.

"You picked their pockets?" Ibiki interrupted, finding this hilarious. Naruto looked between him and Kakashi, asking silently whether he was going to get in any trouble over that.

"Hey, I won't say a word," Ibiki said. "I think it's great. Shows you were thinking about the best and cleanest way to achieve the mission objective instead of any personal glory. Although I have to say, it's a good thing you were only picking the pockets of genin. If you try that with an experienced ninja, you're liable to lose your hand."

"Of course. Right, right," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head with a foxy grin on his face. "I'd never try such a thing on someone able to catch me. Oh, hey, that reminds me. I wanted to show you something I picked up from one of the Konoha genin, Kaka-sensei."

"Yeah, those cards were weird," Sakura agreed. Kakashi tilted his head to the side and Naruto pulled a deck of cards out of one of his many pouches and handed them over.

"They have information about all of the genin in the exam on them," Naruto said. "But they only activated when Kabuto put his chakra through them. I'm not sure what'll happen if someone else tries."

"What kind of information," Ibiki asked, intrigued.

"Names, photos, abilities, number and types of missions," Sakura offered.

"He knew we had two A-ranks," Sasuke said. Ibiki's eyebrows raised significantly.

"I see," Ibiki said. "Well, I'll be taking these and getting them looked at. For now, don't mention this to anyone. And Kakashi, your kids have my vote."

And with that, Ibiki left the team to talk amongst themselves.

"What does he mean about voting?" Sasuke asked.

"Nothing for you to be concerned with just yet," Kakashi said. "For now, I can tell you that the Final Exam is basically a single knock-out tournament that will happen in about a month. Depending on how many teams make it through Anko's test, though, we might have to have some preliminaries. Given how many tokens you three had, I don't think it'll be likely."

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kabuto, as it turned out, was an exceptionally gifted medic nin, and an overall very smart shinobi. But he wasn't better at hiding information than the combined efforts of the Torture and Interrogation Squad were at ferreting that information out.

It had only taken them 29 hours to break the security on the cards Naruto had swiped, and only a handful more to analyze the information they contained and come to a conclusion. Kabuto was almost certainly an enemy agent.

So Ibiki had taken three ANBU squads into the Forest of Death to lay in wait at the tower for Kabuto to show. And, though it was likely overkill, Ibiki thought it was better to be prepared than to be caught by surprise and allow him to escape back to his master. Ibiki really, _really_ wanted to know who his master was and he wasn't going to take any chances. So he waited for Kabuto's team to arrive.

Finally, with only a day remaining in the exam, Kabuto's team appeared a the gate and presented 26 points worth of tokens.

"Congratulations," Iruka told them, smiling easily as he pocketed the chits. "Let me call one of the Jounin examiners to escort you to your rooms while we wait for the exam to be over?" Kabuto's eyes went momentarily wide when Ibiki walked out, and Ibiki could see the worry and concern flare briefly before they were covered with innocent-looking confusion.

"Congratulations on making it through the second test," Ibiki said, keeping to his part as an examiner. "Come with me. I'll show you where you can rest for the time that remains." Then, to put Kabuto more at ease, he turned his back on them and began to walk away. Kabuto, he knew, would follow. And as soon as they got through the door, the ANBU attacked. Kabuto and his teammates were captured—bound and unconscious—within moments. Ibiki grinned and ordered them brought to T&I so he could begin his work.

He broke them in under two days.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Don't think it'll be likely my ass," Naruto muttered as the six teams who made it through the second exam were told about the preliminaries for the final. The new proctor—a sickly looking special Jounin named Hayate—explained the rules. Then all of the teams went up to the observation balcony with their Jounin sensei to wait for their names to be called.

Everyone watched with anticipation as the first match-up flickered on the screen: Haruno Sakura vs. Inuzuka Kiba.

"Aw, man," Kiba complained. "I was really hoping for a tough match-up, where I could show off my skills a little bit."

"Kiba," Sakura said sharply. "Because you're a fellow Leaf nin, I will tell you this: Do not expect me to be the same little girl you knew at the Academy. I am a proud kunoichi of Konoha, and to treat this match as something not worth your full skills and attention isn't only dishonorable… you'll also get hurt."

"Hah!" Kiba scoffed. "Bring it on. I won't even need Akamaru for this fight."

Sakura's brow furrowed briefly in annoyance before she smoothed it back out. Then they were facing each other, and Hayate was signaling them to begin. The match was embarrassingly short. For Kiba, anyway. Sakura didn't bother trying one of her genjutsu, knowing Kiba's sensei was a genjutsu mistress, and assuming (correctly) that Kurenai had taught them well how to break out of them. Instead, as Kiba made a show of yawning and cracking his knuckles, Sakura disappeared and reappeared behind him and with one senbon, put it in the pressure point in his neck that made him pass out.

Kurenai dropped her head into her hands in dismay, and decided Kiba would be getting a hell week for training and a stern talking to.

"Winner, Haruno Sakura," Hayate said, waving the medics into the arena to wake the boy. Sakura made her way back up to her teammates.

"Good job, Sakura!" Naruto congratulated her. Sasuke nodded and Kakashi gave her a one-eyed smile and a pat on the head.

"Sensei!" Sakura complained, smoothing her hair back and glaring, though the corners of her lips were twitching up. The rest of the Rookie Nine looked on in shock.

"That… was brutally efficient," Shikamaru said, reevaluating Team 7. Sakura shrugged.

"I tried to warn him," she said. And indeed, they all recalled she had.

The next match-up came up on the board, drawing everyone's attention: Hyuuga Neji v. Yamanaka Ino.

"Good luck, Ino," Chouji said, munching on some chips. Shikamaru looked between Ino and Neji and sighed as Ino flicked her hair and sashayed her way down to the steps.

"Watch me, Sasuke-kun," she said flirtatiously. "I'll…"

"Ino, take this seriously," Sakura said.

"What? I am serious," Ino exclaimed, annoyed Sakura had interrupted her flirting with Sasuke. "I am going to win Sasuke-kun from you. Just watch me."

"That wasn't what I meant, Ino," Sakura shook her head, but Ino was already marching down the stairs to the arena.

"This is going to be so troublesome," Shikamaru sighed.

The two opponents stood across from each other.

"You are a pathetic excuse for a ninja," Neji said calmly. "These eyes, they see everything. They see how nervous you are, how unsure of yourself. They see your eyes going to the Uchiha, and know you wish acknowledgement from him above all things. Which makes you a pitiable, weak excuse for a kunoichi. You think 'love' is more important than training, and care about your looks more than your skills. You should quit now, and thank me for defeating you and showing you what a sorry, useless little girl you are."

"Ma, are you going to fight or chat?" Hayate asked. "Begin."

"I… but…" Ino tried to protest. But Neji was already on her, connecting the devastating Jyuuken strikes to her arms even as she tried to block. She tried her basic Academy taijutsu and even a few of the more advanced ones her father had made her learn, but it was no use. Then Neji stepped back and waited. She hurried to put her fingers together in her family's signature jutsu, but no chakra would come.

"I've blocked all of your chakra," Neji explained. "Such is the power of the Hyuuga family. You should give up now, to avoid getting more injured."

"No!" Ino yelled, starting to tear up. "I won't let Sakura surpass me. I have to win, so I can win Sasuke-kun's…"

Neji cut her off, striking the side of her neck in a disabling blow.

"Winner, Hyuuga Neji," Hayate announced as Ino fell unconscious. The medics came to take her away, and Neji went back to the observation balcony.

"You didn't have to say those things," Shikamaru said angrily, confronting him as he came up the steps.

"I said nothing that wasn't true," Neji said, unconcerned. "Better that she know them now than on a mission where it will get her killed."

"Even so, you were unnecessarily cruel," Shikamaru said.

"Fate often is," Neji said, turning away.

A new match-up came up on the board, interrupting the boys. Ten Ten v. Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke smirked.

"Have fun, teme," Naruto said. Sasuke only nodded and headed down. He and Ten Ten stood opposite each other, waiting for Hayate to let them begin.

"What, no pre-match banter?" Hayate muttered. "Fine. Begin."

And both opponents began to move. Ten Ten began to barrage Sasuke with an overabundance of throwing weapons—and some that weren't but that she threw anyway. Sasuke activated his Sharingan; knowing where each weapon was and was going to be, he dodged everything, slowly making his way towards her. She figured out his plan and suddenly jumped into the air, pulling out two scrolls.

"You're good," she said. "I was going to try to save these for the finals, but you've forced me into it." Sasuke wasn't sure what was in the scrolls, but he'd seen Naruto with enough to recognize them as summoning scrolls. So as she unrolled them and began the jutsu to cause them to spin around her in a double helix, Sasuke prepared a jutsu of his own.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu," Sasuke said, exhaling and shooting a dozen fireballs at her. The scrolls caught on fire and burned to ash within seconds, causing Ten Ten to fall out of the jutsu prematurely. She twisted herself to at least help her control her landing, but Sasuke was there, grabbing her arm and knocking her into the wall and unconsciousness.

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke," Hayate said, coughing.

"Ten Ten!" Lee cried, jumping down to help her to the medics.

"That's two of your brats to make it to the finals," Asuma said consideringly as he dragged on a cigarette.

"Mm," Kakashi agreed.

"You appear to have trained your students very well, my rival," Gai said. "We should never have doubted you."

Kakashi sighed, wishing Gai hadn't said that within hearing range of the kids.

"Kakashi-sensei is the best," Sakura defended loyally.

"Why would you ever question his ability to train us?" Naruto asked.

"It's not like you guys were able to produce anything spectacular," Sasuke scoffed, looking in particular at Kiba and Ino, who'd been returned from the medics after she'd woken up. Asuma raised both eyebrows as Kurenai flushed and Gai frowned.

"Ma, ma, that's enough, kids," Kakashi said mildly. "I can take care of myself you know."

All three genin frowned at him, then exchanged glances before nodding. They'd deal with it after the exam.

"Good match, by the way," Kakashi said, ruffling Sasuke's hair.

"Tch," he dismissed the words as he looked down. But he didn't move away. And Sakura and Naruto subtly moved in between Kakashi and the other Jounin, still glaring at them. Being Jounin, they didn't miss the interplay or its significance.

The board announced another match, drawing their attention away. Sabaku no Gaara v. Tamachi Hitsuke.

"So do we know anything about either of these guys?" Shikamaru asked.

"Sabaku no Gaara is the youngest child of the Kazekage," Naruto supplied. "His teammates are his older siblings Temari and Kankurou. The gourd Gaara carries holds sand he uses in his main attacks. He's a highly dangerous opponent who will not hesitate to kill you. His sister Temari specializes in wind jutsu used in concert with her giant fan, and his brother Kankurou is a puppet master. "

Everyone but his team looked at him in surprise; it wasn't that Team 7 had gotten quite used to him having strange and unexpected knowledge (though they had), but rather that he'd already shared all of his recon intel on the potential opposition with them.

"Tamachi Hitsuke is a Rain nin," he continued. "He has no specialty, and is only average in nin, gen, and taijutsu. His teammates make up for this lack on missions, but in one-on-one fighting, it puts him at a disadvantage. He's probably only made it this far because his older brother is on the team: Tamachi Kichiro. Now he's one to look out for. Take care if he opens his umbrella, he uses it for area-effect attacks. His other teammate is Hadana Kiku, who specializes in poisons, as she's immune to most of them through one of Rain's bloodlines. She's very smart, but doesn't have much in the way of chakra."

"How do you know all that?" Shikamaru finally asked. Naruto shrugged.

"I'm a ninja. It's my job to know these things about my opponents," he said. "Do you mean to tell me none of you did any recon on your potential opposition?"

"What _have_ your sensei been teaching you if you don't even know the importance of gathering intelligence?" Sakura asked, feigning innocence even as she got the swipe in.

"But when did you have time?" Chouji asked, confused.

"There are benefits to getting to the tower early," Naruto said. "And we've been here the whole five days."

As the opponents met on the arena floor, Gaara began to speak, drawing the attention of those on the balcony to him and away from Naruto.

"Mother wants your blood," he said, voice low but able to carry throughout the arena. "You are going to prove my existence."

"Begin," Hayate said. The Rain nin rushed him, hoping for a quick victory against the obviously unstable boy. _Left jab, roundhouse kick, right knife hand…_ But Gaara's sand met each strike, and he didn't even have to move. It went on this way for a time, as the Rain nin became more and more frustrated. Finally, he jumped back, panting and wondering what else he could do to defeat Gaara.

"My turn," Gaara said, sand pouring out of his gourd and rushing towards Hitsuke. "Desert Coffin." Hitsuke tried to dodge the sand, but was too slow, and he was shortly enveloped.

"No!" one of the Rain nins on the balcony yelled, trying to jump down.

"That's Tamachi Kichiro," Naruto murmured.

"Desert Funeral," Gaara said, closing his fist as the sand smashed the nin it held inside.

"No!" Kichiro screamed. "Hitsuke!"

Hayate, Anko, and Ibiki were between Gaara and Hitsuke, dispelling the sand. Ino, Chouji, and Kiba all got sick at the sight of Hitsuke's broken body. Sakura flinched and looked away. Sasuke and Naruto, standing on either side of her, shifted closer so that they brushed against her, offering what comfort they could.

"Winner, Sabaku no Gaara," Hayate said quietly. Gaara only stared at him. "Go back to your team, Gaara-san." Gaara looked to Hitsuke, then back to Hayate. Anko came to stand slightly behind and to the left of him, so she was able to support and not be in the way if it came down to it, as Gaara was clearly unstable. Ibiki was bent over the broken body, checking for a pulse. As the medics came out, he shook his head; Hitsuke was dead.

"No!" Kichiro yelled, finally breaking free from his teammate and sensei's grip and rushing the floor. He was over to his brother in a moment, shoving past Ibiki to cradle his body in his arms. The arena was silent. Finally, he allowed the medics to take his brother's body away and he slowly stood up, glaring at Gaara the entire time.

"I am going to kill you," he said.

"You will prove my existence," Gaara said.

"Maybe, but not now," Hayate interrupted. "For now, we gotta finish up these matches. So if you two are gonna kill each other, you're gonna have to wait for a while. And if you're gonna do it, please wait 'til you're in a sanctioned match or you're outside of Konoha and Fire. It would be a pain to deal with the paperwork involved if you kill each other otherwise."

Kichiro trembled and glared, then shuddered and seemed to get himself under control, ignoring Gaara and the rest of the world as he headed back up to the observation balcony. Gaara pulled his sand back into his gourd, then joined his siblings.

The next match came up on the board: Hyuuga Hinata v. Sabaku no Temari.

"Aw, man, good luck, Hinata," Kiba said, slapping her back. Hinata stumbled a bit at the force.

"Do your best," Shino said, nodding to her. "Keep Naruto's information on her in mind."

"Hai, Shino-kun," she stuttered.

"Begin," Hayate said when they were both down there.

"This is my fan," Temari said, planting it in front of her with a flourish. "When you see three stars, you'll know it's over."

Hinata nodded, not in agreement so much as acknowledgement that she'd heard. Then she attacked, rushing forward in an attempt to engage Temari in hand-to-hand. But Temari was having nothing to do with it.

"One," she said, opening her fan part of the way to reveal a purple circle. She swept her fan, causing wind to blow through the arena, pitching Hinata back and away.

"Is that all you've got, little girl?" Temari asked snidely. As Hinata got up, she used her body to hide her hands as they ran through a series of hand seals.

"Forest Deceit," she said softly as a massive forest sprang up around them, covering the entire arena.

"Genjutsu," Temari spat. "Kai!" But it wasn't enough to dispel the technique. She tried again, then felt a hand slapping her arm and jumped away. Temari shook it, trying to get the feeling back. When she couldn't, she realized she'd have to get serious.

"You're making me show you all three stars sooner than I expected," Temari said. She couldn't see Hinata, but with her wind jutsu, she didn't need to. She flicked her fan and it fell all the way open, three large purple circles prominently displayed.

"Desert Windstorm," she yelled, twisting around with her fan, blowing massive gusts of wind around the entire arena. Even those in the observation balcony had to steady themselves. Sakura grabbed Ino by the collar as she went flying past him, and Kakashi gave a raised eyebrow to Asuma, as though to say, 'and you were questioning _my_ teaching?'

Hinata was caught in the brunt of it and, though she tried to reinforce her feet with chakra, the wind was too strong and tore her away, throwing her into a wall so quickly she wasn't even able to control her landing. She hit her head and was knocked out. Her genjutsu dispelled.

"Winner, Sabaku no Temari," Hayate said. The medics took Hinata away.

"That was quite a genjutsu for a rookie genin to pull off," Kakashi said.

"She was more than able and ready for it," Kurenai said defensively.

"Kakashi-sensei was trying to give you a compliment, Kurenai-san," Sakura said.

"Sakura," Kakashi reprimanded gently.

"But Kaka-sensei," Sakura tried, but she cut herself off at his look. "Sorry, Sensei."

"Your students are very protective of you," Asuma drawled, looking at the four of them. Kakashi gave one of his one-eyed smiles.

"A team that doesn't care for each other is worthless," was all Kakashi said.

Then the board showed the next match-up: Tamachi Kichiro v. Lee

"You should forfeit," Kichiro told Lee. "I will be going to the finals to kill that bastard who killed my brother. If I have to kill you to do it, I won't hesitate."

"Yosh, how unyouthful!" Lee said, shaking his head. "I shall not forfeit before I've had a chance to show my flames of youth."

"I will avenge my brother," Kichiro said. "It's your funeral if you get in my way."

"Begin," Hayate said.

Lee shot forward in a burst of speed, but Kichiro was already in the air, opening one of the umbrellas on his back.

"Senbon Shower," Kichiro called, and the umbrella began rapidly spinning as it rained down senbon. To the surprise of most of those gathered, Lee was fast enough to dash back and forth, dodging the senbon as they fell. When the jutsu stopped, Lee smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"Yosh, that was truly a fearsome jutsu, Tamachi-san," Lee said. "But I… I…"

Lee began to sway.

"But no matter how fast you were, you couldn't avoid being scratched by at least one," Kichiro said, dropping back down to the floor and returning his umbrella to its place on his back. "Examiner, it's over."

And Lee fell over, unconscious. Gai jumped down from the balcony to see to Lee's injury.

"Winner, Tamachi Kichiro," Hayate said.

"Poison, of course," Gai said, looking to Kichiro, who nodded. "Can we have the antidote?"

"Do you have an antidote to my brother being dead?" Kichiro asked bitterly.

"Tamachi-san, my student had nothing to do with…"

"There is no antidote," Kichiro said. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the Rain nin, who had clutched at one of the straps on his chest. Naruto would have bet good money that he was touching the antidote. "He'll die within a few hours."

"Tamachi-san!" Gai cried. "That is…"

"Gai," the Hokage censored him, shaking his head. Gai clenched his teeth and his fists, then deflated and helped the medics with Lee.

Kichiro coldly turned away and began to make his back way up the stairs to the observation balcony. Naruto narrowed his eyes and made sure to be standing just enough in the middle of the balcony to be in the way.

"Move, twerp," Tamachi sneered as he pushed Naruto out of the way.

"Watch it, jackass," Naruto retorted, slipping an arm around Sakura's waist and a hand into her pouch. A few moments later she signaled to Kakashi that she needed a bathroom break and headed towards the back hallway. As soon as she was out of sight, she used a simple henge to look like any other medic then broke into a sprint to catch up to Gai and the medics as they carried Lee away to the medical facility.

When she saw him, she was reminded of the Konoha team she had tried to help in Wave. Lee was ashen, and his breathing was badly laboured. She extended her fingers to Lee's ankle to get a read on him and found his organs were in the beginning stages of shutting down.

The Rain nin had been right. Lee would certainly die within the next few hours unless he were administered the antidote. That Naruto had slipped a few vials into her bag was great, but she was still in training and didn't have time to analyze anything before she would be missed. And if people caught her doing it, questions about how she'd gotten the antidote would be raised.

It was a moment's work to put Lee's body into temporary stasis—not a true one, of course, as that would have taken more time and concentration than she had while they were running, but one that should slow everything down until help could get there. Then Sakura bit her lip, then regulated her vocal chords and tried to take on the demeanor of all of the medics she'd been training with recently.

"If it's poison, we must get Shizune-senpai," she said, mimicking to the best of her ability. "She's by far the most experienced with poisons in all of Konoha."

"Yosh, I shall retrieve Shizune-san for you immediately!" Gai yelled.

"Wait, give her these antidotes, Jounin-sama," she ordered Gai, falling back from the group to catch him before he darted off. "They may be of some use in your student's case. Now go!"

She blinked in surprise as he disappeared so quickly Sakura could hardly believe he hadn't used a jutsu. Then she waited for the medics taking Lee to turn a corner before she dropped the henge and began the sprint back to the preliminaries, getting back just as she heard Shikamaru's match being announced.

"So, what'd I miss?" she asked, forcing herself to regulate her breath. Kakashi gave her a piercing look which she refused to meet even as she signed 'mission complete' to Naruto and Sasuke.

"Shino and Chouji finished," Sasuke said. "His kikai bugs drained Chouji when he used one of his family's multi-size jutsu. After that, Chouji basically forfeited. And now Shikamaru's up against the other Rain nin, Hadana Kiku. Hayate just let them begin."

Sakura nodded and gave him a smile then turned to watch the fight.

"This is so troublesome," Shikamaru sighed. "Fighting against a girl."

"What, you think kunoichi can't be good ninja?" Kiku asked archly. "Well, I'll just have to disabuse you of that notion."

She threw something to the ground at Shikamaru's feet and, even as he jumped out of the way, it exploded into a cloud of smoke too thick for regular eyes to penetrate. Sakura wondered at the stategy of the Rain nin, who was leaning against the wall looking at her nails. When the smoke cleared, Shikamaru was on the ground, not moving. Ino gasped and Chouji dropped his chips.

"That wasn't a regular smoke bomb, you Leaf chump," Kiku scoffed as she went over to check to make sure Shikamaru was out. "It was filled with poisoned gas. Guess you should've been more concerned about a 'mere' kunoichi, hunh."

She was pulling back a leg to kick him in the ribs when Shikamaru's shadow jumped out, catching hold of her.

"What?" she asked. Shikamaru rolled over off of his stomach and sat up, revealing the bandana he'd tied around his nose and mouth.

"I knew you were a poison expert, and likely to try something like that," Shikamaru explained. "So as soon as the smoke hit, I kept to the ground where there was the least of it and took as few breaths as possible. Then when it cleared, you were overconfident, and all I needed to do was let you get close enough that you couldn't escape my shadow. Now, this is troublesome, but just follow along."

And Shikamaru did a light back flip, but Kiku's nearness to the wall forced her to knock herself out as she mimicked Shikamaru's movements.

"Winner, Nara Shikamaru," Hayate said, a bit surprised.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, shuffling back to the balcony.

"Well, guess that leaves me and you, Kankurou," Naruto said to the Sand ninja. Kankurou nodded, and the two began to head down even as the board lit up to display their names.

Kankurou eyed Naruto as they stood across from each other, waiting for Hayate to let them begin.

"You look like a brawler," he said to Naruto.

"Aw, man," Naruto pouted. "Shit. You found me out."

Hayate raised an eyebrow as he knew very well what Kakashi's team could do. Genma, after a few drinks, had complained loudly about the assessment he'd had to do of them. _Very_ loudly and with enough detail that Hayate planned to give the pink one especially a fairly wide berth.

"Begin," he said, leaping away. Naruto quickly darted in, using a bastardized Jyuuken move that had Neji and Hinata gasping as he slapped a palm to the forehead of what he knew was really Kankurou's puppet. A second later, the seal he'd created for Kakashi's eye activated and completely cut off any and all chakra from being able to move through the puppet. It collapsed into so much wood and the real Kankurou fell out of the wrappings awkwardly as he was cut off from controlling the puppet's movements.

"What the hell did you do to Karasu!" Kankurou demanded, but Naruto was already following up, not allowing Kankurou any time to recover or regroup. It was over quickly after that. Kankurou, having always relied on his puppets, was not a close combat expert and Naruto wasn't allowing him to get enough space between them for Kankurou to use any of his nin or genjutsu. It only took a handful of moves for Naruto to subdue him with a kunai to his jugular and a knee in his back.

"Will you forfeit?" Naruto asked.

"Not on your life, you Leaf brat," Kankurou spat.

"Well, really, it's on _your_ life," Naruto mused, "but so be it." And he slammed the pommel of his kunai to Kankurou's head, knocking him out. Then he got up and brushed himself off, heading back to the puppet and fingering its forehead in apparent curiosity before Temari jumped down to collect it. Naruto wasn't too bothered by that, as he'd already removed the seal and any remnants of its chakra from the puppet.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Before Naruto could return to his team, Hayate requested all of those who had made it to the final exam to join him on the floor. After Ino literally kicked Shikamaru off the balcony to make him line up with the others, Hayate began.

"The final exam will be a single knock-out tournament with a standard draw," Hayate said. "Since there are nine of you and only eight slots in the draw, we'll have to have one match at the beginning of the final exam to determine who moves forward into that slot. Now you'll all draw numbers from this bag to determine your place in the draw."

They all took a number and Hayate filled out the draw sheet.

"Hmm, interesting," Hayate said, handing the sheet to the Hokage.

"Ah, yes," the old man said, rubbing his chin. "This wil be a very interesting tournament indeed. First round matches will include Aburame Shino v. Uchiha Sasuke; Hyuuga Neji v. Tamachi Kichiro, Sabaku no Temari v. Haruno Sakura, and Sabaku no Gaara v. the winner of the last prelim, which shall be Uzumaki Naruto v. Nara Shikamaru. Best of luck to all of you."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered. Naruto only smiled.

"I am going to train Shikamaru to within an inch of his life," Asuma warned Kakashi. "He'll be so prepared for Uzumaki the kid won't stand a chance."

"Hmm?" Kakashi said. "What was that?" Asuma rolled his eyes, and so didn't notice Kakashi's eye sharply taking note of both Shikamaru and his sensei.

"The final exam will be held in one month's time. Your Jounin sensei will have more information for you tomorrow. Until then, you're all dismissed," Hayate said. The genin began to wander off, and the Jounin from foreign powers left with their teams, until only Konoha Jounin and Kakashi's team were left. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke took up positions near the far wall, close enough to answer if called but far enough away to be considered polite. Then they waited for Kakashi.

"Congratulations, Kakashi," the Hokage said. "For your entire team to make it to the finals is quite a feat. One made even more impressive by the fact that they're all rookies."

"They're quick studies," Kakashi said, trying to turn aside the praise.

"I could say that about many of the genin I've assigned to teams over the years," the Hokage said. "But none of them have ever had their entire team make it to the finals of the Chuunin Exam within six months of their becoming Genin. Even the team I taught took close to 18 months. You should be proud of your accomplishments, and the accomplishments of your genin. I certainly am."

"Your team makes up one-third of the finalists," Hayate said. "The only other team to have more than one finalist is the Sand team."

"Indeed," the Hokage said. "I'm certain that a number of shinobi are reconsidering certain beliefs with this accomplishment, Kakashi."

"Yeah, your brats…" Asuma began.

"Are still here," Anko cut him off. Everyone but Kakashi and the Hokage turned to look at the genin leaning against the far wall and watching them avidly.

"Oi, I dismissed you brats," Hayate called. Then genin looked up at him, then to Kakashi for direction.

"Exactly," Kakashi said, giving his one-eyed grin and turning their attention back to him.

"…What?" Hayate asked.

"_You_ dismissed them, Hayate-kohai, " Kakashi said lazily as he emphasized their respective statuses in the Konoha Shinobi Corps. "But I am their commander. My students have been well versed in the Code of Combat and Konoha's standard operating procedures. They know that when their commander is present, they follow his orders and no one else's. I find it curious that my 'brats' are the only ones who do."

Asuma scowled and Kurenai blushed, but neither commented.

"Well, since you don't need me anymore, I'll just be off," Kakashi said, signaling to his team before anyone could think to protest or make other ridiculous comments.

The Hokage only smiled.

oooooooooooooooooooooooo


End file.
